Global Internet and Cloud Outage: Can the World Survive a Total Digital Shutdown?

[johny899]

Consider what life would be like when the use of technology disappears and everything we do online will not function. All access to Google, WhatsApp, online payment methods etc., are no longer possible (including media). This may seem like an extreme, but it has crossed my mind, and honestly, it terrifies me. So, let’s chat, as friends, about the possibility of an entire global internet or cloud outage.

How Much Are We Dependent on the Internet?​

There are people out there who think that we could easily get along without internet use. Before making this statement, let’s try living a day without internet use for ourselves.

A time when I was trying to use my debit card to purchase groceries when the machine stopped accepting cards due to an outage. While the machine was inoperable, everyone else at the point of sale was standing around in confusion waiting for the machine to work again. It was like life was brought to an abrupt halt that day.

Today, almost everything of our daily activities require the use of the internet, these items include:

• Online banking and payments
• Cloud storage and backup systems
• Medical facilities and their record systems
• Transportation and shipping systems
• Educational systems and teleworking apparatuses

Once one of the top three cloud-service providers suffer an outage (i.e. AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure), there are usually a number of websites that can no longer be accessed or used. However, if every website was down simultaneously, it would create much larger problems than the inability to access a website.

What Would Happen If the World Lost Internet Access?​

Communication Would Cease to Exist

How would we communicate? The majority of mobile phone networks host their services through the cloud.

People wouldn’t be able to send messages, email, or access a GPS service, which would result in the public panicking.

Money and Business Will Suffer

Banks operate through online channels, and stock exchanges function online. Even a one hour outage in internet service can cost a company over a billion dollars.

If a business were to be offline for days at a time, it might shut down; therefore the consequences become dire for people managing their businesses.

Healthcare and Safety Issues Will Arise

Hospitals depend on online documentation. Airports rely heavily on their system to schedule flights. Emergency services rely on their means of communication to do their jobs effectively.

If any of these systems were to cease to work, the results could be catastrophic.

Would We Survive?​

I believe we can survive, but life would be extremely difficult.

It would resemble returning to previous generations, as most people today have limited to no experience conducting daily life activities without the internet.

To increase our chances of survival we need to have these things at the very least: Offline Back-ups, Paper Records, Local Communication Devices, as well as Preparedness Plans.

Some nations do have offline safety plans in place, however the majority of us just assume that internet access will always be available to us; therein lies our vulnerability.

Can We Survive Global Internet Outage?​

Yes, we could, however it will not likely be easy. There would be an initial period characterised by confusion, financial loss, and stress, until people find their feet once again. Perhaps this could prompt thought into preparing for a backup should we use technology as a tool and not as a crutch; if we rely completely on one system, we give ourselves no chance if we cause it to fall over - it's akin to putting all your eggs in one basket then inadvertently dropping the basket.