An Exclusive Economic Zone is a maritime zone that extends up to 200 nautical miles from a coastal state’s baseline. In an EEZ, the state does not have full sovereignty like it does in territorial waters, but it does have sovereign rights over natural resources and certain regulatory powers, including parts of marine research, environmental control, and some infrastructure activities.
For cyber security and critical infrastructure, the EEZ matters because submarine cables, offshore platforms, and landing routes often cross it. That means permits, surveys, maintenance access, and repair windows can depend on the legal status of the waterway. A state may not control ordinary passage the way it can inside territorial waters, but it can still create friction through regulation, licensing, or inspection requirements. Defenders use EEZ awareness to plan routes, avoid single points of failure, and negotiate repair access before an outage or attack turns into a prolonged disruption.