A cut to the largest internet cable that connects Europe and Asia caused severe service disruption that stretched from from Africa to Pakistan.

Chief technology officer at internet connectivity measuring company Renesys, Jim Cowie, said that parts of Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and India have been in "very tough shape" since the cable was severed. These internet customers get most of their internet service routed from Europe and the US and when the cable was cut, some lost internet connectivity entirely.

Cowie said: "When a cable like that gets cut, a lot of the paths between networks get radically changed and we see that within a few seconds."

Seacom, a submarine cable network that provides broadband to Africa and owns the cut cable, said Wednesday that the cable had suffered a cut off the coast of Egypt. Following reports that three men had been arrested for cutting the cable, Seacom said Thursday that it could not confirm what was responsible for the damage.

The disruption comes days after reports of what some touted as the "biggest cyber attack in history." This attack occurred when a group, reported by the New York Times to be hosting site Cyberbunker, launched a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against spam-filtering company Spamhaus.

"The impacts are like night and day compared to this DDoS attack, which was a good story, but really didn't cause a widespread global impact," Cowie said.

When an undersea cable's service is disrupted, internet service must be rerouted through other cables, significantly impeding an internet service provider's ability to deliver internet service. A DDoS attack is mostly felt by the targeted site, with some collateral damage to nearby internet exchanges.

"It's messy and physical, they have to go out with a ship, typically, and make a splice," Cowie said. "Depending on where that is, it can take a long time."

The predecessor to this undersea cable, SEA-ME-WE-3, has had a service interruption since January after being damaged in the waters of Singapore. Repairs to the cord have been impeded because of delays in obtaining the licensing from the Singapore government allowing it to be fixed.