Internet crash - could it really happen?

Alan Cane

Financial Times, page 28

17 September 2009

PA IT experts David Elton, Rob Gear and Lee Howells contributed to Alan Cane’s article in the Financial Times Digital Business report on ways in which the internet might be vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse, and the likelihood of this happening. The article explores the possible scenarios which could see the downfall of the internet – including terrorist attacks and natural calamity. 

The article mentions past examples of near failure including a damaged under-sea cable disrupting web-traffic to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle East and a 2001 ‘denial of service’ where 10 of the world’s 13 Domain Name Servers were taken off line by spurious requests for information.  

The article goes on to advise businesses on what they should do to protect themselves against the possibility of an internet crash.  

PA experts were major contributors to the thinking of this piece.  

You can view the article in full here