In 2026, 40 new submarine cables go live. Most won't land in Europe. Europe is losing the sea cable race, and most people haven't noticed yet.

In this second part of our sea cables conversation, host Peter Ernst sits down with Ernst Noorman, the Netherlands' Cyber Ambassador-at-Large and a member of the ITU Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, to move from the “how” of sea cables to the “why it matters.”

We compare two places that were once called the two hardest spots in the world to build digital infrastructure, Amsterdam and Singapore, and unpack how Singapore solved its crunch with 32 cable landings, five years of zero cable faults, and a green-energy-first tender process, while the Netherlands risks resting on a 30-year-old head start.

Along the way: the difference between sovereignty and autonomy, why “always the cheapest option” no longer works, the EU Cyber Resilience Act and security by design, what NIS2 means for boards and CEOs personally, and why Europe needs to stop being modest about Airbus-sized wins.

Chapters

00:00 — 40 new cables, most skip Europe
00:30 — Meet Ernst Noorman & the ITU advisory body
02:00 — The sea cable map is being redrawn
04:08 — Why the Netherlands risks losing its head start
06:26 — How Singapore solved it: 32 landings, zero faults
08:09 — Tax cuts for digital, would Europe ever?
08:59 — Sovereignty vs autonomy: it's about choice
15:02 — You can't own the whole stack (ASML, Nokia, Ericsson)
15:53 — Why “always the cheapest” stops working
17:47 — The Cyber Resilience Act & security by design
18:51 — The water-from-the-tap analogy
19:51 — What boards and CEOs must actually ask
25:30 — Back to Singapore: government-led, by design
29:39 — The good news: Europe's real strengths
36:15 — What needs to happen in the next 3–5 years

Threat Talks is a podcast by ON2IT and AMS-IX. Subscribe for more on Zero Trust, cyber resilience, and the infrastructure behind the internet.