What happens if the internet goes down?

What would happen if the internet went down? Many say that our society is too dependent on the Internet. However, only a few are aware of the full effects of a failure, and we explain the consequences of a global and particular internet failure.

The internet is failing - how likely is that?

Experts estimate the risk of a total Internet failure to be very low. This is due to the structure of the internet:

• The Internet does not have a specific headquarters, but is rather a network of smaller networks. So there is no real core that provides all the data, but many individual servers that are connected by a branched infrastructure.
• The infrastructure always offers a target for physical destruction: various submarine cables, for example, can be damaged relatively easily, and there have also been incidents of this kind in the past. But even such events do not lead to web failure. The data simply takes a different path so that everything still works - but the speed can suffer.
• The central nodes of the Internet are managed by gigantic routers. If attackers manage to paralyze all of them, the network would actually fail. Such an attack is considered difficult, but not impossible.
• A failure of individual websites - even over a large area - is certainly possible. The DNS provider Dyn was the victim of such an attack in 2016.

Internet gone: These major failures have occurred in recent years

Recently there have been minor failures of the Internet or certain services.

• For example, as already mentioned, the DNS provider Dyn was attacked. As a result, services such as Whatsapp, Spotify and Amazon were not available for several hours.
• Telekom routers were also attacked in 2016. The attack meant that around 900, 000 Germans were no longer able to access the Internet.
• With a simple typo, an Amazon technician triggered a chain reaction that also paralyzed parts of the Internet: he accidentally disconnected too many Amazon AWS servers from the network. However, data from larger services and websites were stored on it.
• In 2012 a submarine cable was separated by an anchoring ship. As a result, large parts of East Africa had to do without the Internet.

Internet gone for several weeks - that can happen

If the internet were actually down for several weeks, it is quite possible that a catastrophe will occur.

• The first impact of a global internet outage that you will feel is the loss of communication opportunities. Not only instant messages are sent over the network, SMS and calls are also handled by your telephone provider over the Internet. Even the good old landline will let you down.
• What you don't notice, however, is that the entire financial system will come to a standstill within a few moments. All stock exchanges around the world and banks rely on the Internet.
• Many classic companies have saved some of their data on the Internet and need it to work. These suffer a severe loss, which can even cost the lives of smaller companies.
• Even supermarkets and pharmacies can no longer work because they order replenishments online. Our health and food supplies are at stake.
• The power grid is also at risk if the web fails: Since many power plants are controlled via the Internet, there will be a power failure. This leads to further problems.
• With the elimination of electricity and the Internet, the situation is slowly coming to a head: food can no longer be produced and refrigerated, fuel can no longer be delivered and supplies are running out. At the same time, hospitals can no longer treat patients, and waterworks no longer work. This is how the basic supply collapses bit by bit: food is becoming scarce, drinking water is in short supply, you can no longer wash and there are catastrophic hygienic conditions.
• Fortunately, such scenarios have only been fiction so far. Such an event can only be prevented by securing the infrastructure accordingly.

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