This question sparked heated debate after NASA warned of a possible solar storm that could hit Earth in October 2023, before the agency came out in the second half of that month to deny that a global internet outage was on the way.
We are raising the question again not to stir controversy, but to plan and prepare for what may never happen, and to handle whatever does happen well, by asking “what if?”, as crisis management teaches us.
Some communications and information technology specialists rule out a total internet outage. Another group believes a partial outage in a given region is possible: if hackers reached the control centers of key servers and disabled them, or if undersea ocean cables were damaged by a hostile act. Everyone agrees, however, that the internet would go down if all servers stopped at once, as in a nuclear war, an asteroid strike, or a major solar flare that disturbs the Earth’s magnetic field and triggers geomagnetic storms capable of crippling the network, even destroying it entirely.
There is no doubt that the internet has penetrated every aspect of our lives, down to the smallest details of our daily routines. If it were to go down, the consequences would be severe: wireless communications would fail, and the energy and utility networks that depend on the internet, such as electricity, water, wastewater treatment and gas, would stop working.
An outage would also halt transportation, disrupting the supply of goods and food and bringing global and electronic commerce, companies and banks to a standstill. People in cold and hot regions, who need electricity for heating or cooling, would suffer, and many would lose online jobs. Military aircraft, drones, aircraft carriers, submarines and all means of electronic warfare would be disabled as well.
Government services and citizens’ affairs in countries and regions linked to the network would inevitably stop. Satellites, telecommunications and the media would fail, and people would be unable to reach one another, especially in emergencies and when calling for help, spreading panic and chaos.
Consider the current global situation: ballistic missile tests in the oceans, the wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Palestine, and the suffering of the people of Gaza. Add the Houthi attacks, one of Iran’s proxies, on ships crossing the Red Sea, where one of the main internet cables runs at a depth of 100 to 500 meters, linking Africa, Asia and Europe. That makes it vulnerable to ballistic missiles or to damage from deliberate action, as happened with the Russian gas pipelines under the sea, or from accident. All of this compels us to ask: # what if it happened?
It has therefore become essential to take this into account and to plan for a total or partial internet outage in our region. We need scenarios for keeping different sectors running without the network, and without an alternative one such as China’s independent network or the one Russia has announced.
We see great value in relying on radio broadcasting, with a dedicated channel to keep citizens informed and guide them through emergencies when a crisis strikes. Its frequencies should be announced and publicized before any crisis, or in the event of natural disasters, God forbid, as is already done in some other countries.
May God protect Egypt and its people.
