Marketplace Tech

Most of the world’s internet traffic flows through underwater cables on the ocean floor. The wires are also responsible for some $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day.

And because those cables hold so much data and carry so much money, they’re also a potential security threat. That may explain why the U.S. and China are vying for control over the technology — and why the Trump administration is ramping up spending to replace cables in the Caribbean and Central America.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Erin Murphy, the managing director for Asia at Redpoint Advisors, about why these cables play a key role in geopolitics.

More on this:

US is considering big boost to anti-China spending globally from The Associated Press

Risk Beneath the Waves: Safeguarding Subsea Cables for a Secure Global Network from CSIS

Water systems across a dozen states were targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks. So far, the water has remained safe to drink, but the incidents have raised concerns about the possibility of future attacks.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nikita Shah, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about other vulnerable infrastructure and the steps that states can take to strengthen cybersecurity.

More on this:

How Tehran’s Use of Cyber Operations in the U.S.-Iran Conflict Has Evolved from CSIS

A Leaked Memo Ties Cyberattacks on Minnesota Water Utilities to Iran | WIRED from WIRED

New York awards $9M to protect water systems after cyberattacks in other states - Gothamist from Gothamist

More than 100 rockets took off into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast last year — a new record. And with more rockets taking flight each year, the availability of launch sites is becoming a bottleneck for the growing space industry.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to make it easier for space companies to build new spaceports to make way for the increasing number of rocket launches. The agency has proposed waiving some environmental requirements for space launch. Daniel Ackerman has been reporting on the space industry as part of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT.

Suno, an AI music company, wants to partner with independent artists by launching an incubator program called Suno Spark. This program will provide grants, marketing support and, of course, Suno AI tools to unsigned musicians.

Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy at MIDiA Research, which consults in entertainment, discusses more on this.

Anthropic announced it's adding invisible watermarks to all text generated by its chatbot Claude. The AI startup is rolling out the policy globally as part of efforts to comply with the European Union AI Act.

Plus, there's a patchwork of state laws that regulate AI-generated political messaging — they're being put to the test ahead of the midterm elections. And federal regulators ordered Kalshi to continue to operate in New York, despite a state lawsuit seeking to shut it down.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, about all this for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”