What would happen if the Internet went down?

The Internet is a global computer network providing a variety of

information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected
networks using standardized communication protocols.

Where it was once a curiosity and used by just a few universities and
businesses it now has around 3.4bn users (almost half the people on the
planet), according to the International Telecommunications Network.

We rely on the internet for everything from communication to shopping to

storing documents to transactions to education.

Today’s Threats

There are a number of threats today that experts believe put the entire
internet at risk.

Space Weather

A solar flare is a sudden increase in the Sun’s brightness. When a big enough
solar flare erupts, it can cause geomagnetic storms on Earth. The largest
solar flare recorded took place in 1859. Dubbed the Carrington Event, after
the British astronomer Richard Carrington, the 1859 solar flare caused
auroras to appear all over the globe, and sparks to leap from telegraph
operators’ equipment.

If a storm of that magnitude occurred today, it would blow out transformers

and melt down computer systems. In theory, a major solar event could break
the entire internet.
Cable Cutting

At its most basic level, the internet is a tangle of really, really long
wires. Compromising of telephone poles, buried fibre optic lines and
undersea cables, the wires that make up the internet span every continent and
ocean.

If enough cables were cut in some huge coordinated effort, the entire internet
could be taken down. This, however, would be very difficult to achieve.

Cyberwarfare

Cyberwarfare is all over the news. And whilst we know that cyberattacks are
absolutely capable of disrupting websites and networks, could an attack
really take down the entire internet?

Unfortunately, the answer, again, is yes. In fact, this potential is perhaps

already frighteningly close to being realised. In 2017, reports emerged of a
botnet – a collection of interconnected devices – that comprised of more
than a million machines. Created by hackers, a botnet of this size could
theoretically unleash a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack far
greater than any we have seen previously.

What Would Happen If the Internet Went Down?

If the internet were to go down forever, companies such as Google,

Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon would shrink dramatically or cease to
exist at all. The global economy would have to substantially reorganise itself
– a process that would cost trillions of pounds, create massive global
unemployment and a global economic crisis the likes of which we have
never witnessed before.
And it’s not just the economic impact that we’d have to worry about. Due to
overload, telecommunications services would come under acute strain and
quickly fail. The 24/7 news cycle would break down, leaving countries and
communities isolated from each other. Air-traffic would not be able function
properly, causing major disruption to travel. Metro systems would also fail,
as would suburban train networks. All satellites would have to shut down,
meaning services such as the GPS network would collapse.

In short, if the internet were to disappear, the world would change

substantially. As a species, we’d be thrown back in time, and faced with
fixing the greatest problem the world has ever seen – without any of the
tools we normally use to fix problems. It would, in no uncertain terms, be a
nightmare. Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen then.