Big global threat: Scientists talk about what could destroy the Internet worldwide – Topky.sk

In an article published for SIGCOMM 21 scientists from the University of California describe in detail the devastating effects that a geomagnetic storm could have on the world’s underwater cables, blocking the flow of information and obscuring the world, which is so desperately reliant on the Internet. They believe that their new research should emphasize the need for strong mitigation technologies that could prevent a similar scenario.

We would feel it in all aspects of life

The idea of ​​geomagnetic storms damaging electrical equipment is not new in science. It is well documented that large ejections from the solar surface, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), could pose a great risk to satellites and potentially disrupt electric current. In a new post by Sangeeth Abdu, Jyothi explores how solar storms could affect submarine cables. The global Internet relies on a comprehensive network of cables laid on the ocean floor. If they were interrupted, it could lead to a complete outage of the Internet, which would affect almost all aspects of everyday life.

The solar flare is caused by huge waves of hot plasma, which shoot out of the Sun and emit a wave of electromagnetic radiation outwards. These waves reach Earth within eight minutes, but are blocked by the ionosphere and the upper atmosphere. Larger events, such as CMEs, release not only electromagnetic radiation, but also solar matter and their magnetic fields. When exploded in space, they often travel in one direction. If the Earth got in their way, they could disrupt its magnetic field and destroy electrical equipment. Such storms have occurred in the past, but they are rare. The largest solar storm of the 20th century caused enormous damage around the world, severely affecting the US rail system, while smaller storms reportedly shut down entire energy networks in Canada.

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An internet outage would last a long time

The paper on the analysis of the Earth’s Internet infrastructure concludes that large CMEs could cause a full global internet outage, which would last long after the end of the storm. That doesn’t mean we’re stuck in the dark; the regional internet would probably continue to operate because the optical fibers are not affected by solar storms. The US would probably be hit the hardest because it relies on the submarine cables that connect it to Europe. Google’s activity would probably not be affected by the disaster, but Facebook (which has data centers relatively close to each other) would have serious connectivity issues.

Unfortunately, Jyothi has more bad news. According to him, the probability of a storm, which is large enough to cause such large-scale disturbances, is 1.6-12 percent per decade. That is much more than experts would like. Research suggests that the Internet needs to be better protected from such an event, and solar storms should be taken into account when designing Internet infrastructure.