How Fragile, the Internet

Big Quake Cuts Communications in Taiwan Dec 27th - 11:03pm By PETER ENAV and PETER SVENSSON Associated Press Writers TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Undersea fiber-optic cables were damaged by a powerful earthquake off the southern tip of Taiwan, causing the largest outage of telephone and Internet service in years and demonstrating the vulnerability of the global telecommunications network. (WTOP News)

This was a fairly big quake as earthquakes go and it was fortunate that there was not more death or destruction. It does however point out just how fragile the Internet really is and more importantly, should be a wake up call for those in emergency management, especially at FEMA and the Department of Homeland (in)Security, to take into account that it does not take much to make all the best laid plans little more than shards of broken glass.

Now, before you think that it cannot happen here, let me highlight some interesting statistics. Every day there is at least one break in the Internet in the United States caused by carelessness, whether that is some guy on the street with a backhoe or some newbie in one of the dozens of key centers that manage the flow fat fingering a setting on a core router. Any network manager that has more than one site will tell you it is more common that the telcos will ever admit. Worse, there is not a whole lot that can be done when the phone calls start coming in.

On the other side of the coin, we have become so dependant on this technology that most of us have forgotten how to write with pen on paper to the point that our handwriting is legible. As a result, if we had to do it long hand, it is unlikely that it would be a smooth process. In many cases, especially in the metro areas, there is not even a paper process to follow anymore, it is assumed that the servers will be up and available and accessible 24/7/365 and that is just not a smart assumption.

The pioneers that built the Internet were a very tech savvy group, smart and resourceful. I wish I could say the same for some of the managers and technicians that have come after them and some of the executives that are gambling with your life on a technology that could go poof without any warning.