Shark bites chomp gigabytes

Google has had to reinforce 160000km of its undersea internet cabling with a material similar to that used in bulletproof vests to protect it against shark attacks.

Fibre-optic cables carry data in the form of encoded laser light across the oceans, allowing transfer rates up to 100 times faster than possible using old-fashioned copper cable. But they are made of glass fibre so need to be protected from knocks.

For unknown reasons, sharks seem drawn to the data cables that rest on the ocean floor.

One attack has been caught on video.