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Big tech players have our digital lives in their hands, and when they crash, we’re lost. This clearly showed the collapse of Google, says Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder of the Internet Foundation. – Today’s society is very vulnerable, he says.
When Google services failed on Monday, many were handcuffed.
We plan our days of the week on the calendar, communicate with colleagues by email, use search tools to find information and maps to find the right one. We have video meetings, we translate, record and stream movies.
We live much of our lives online, both to work and to coordinate daycare pick-ups. Something that became very clear when Google crashed on Monday.
– We have become heavily dependent on digital services. And we put a lot of eggs in the same basket, much of the usage falls to a few big players, of which Google is one, says Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder, head of security for the Internet Foundation.
This time the problem was short lived, but it raises questions about what would happen if the same thing happened for several hours, or perhaps days, he notes.
– Today’s society is very vulnerable. We have some so-called single points of failure, that is, points that, if they fail, means that many are affected at the same time. This is an example of that, she says.
Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder is convinced that something similar will happen again in the future and underlines the importance of preparing for it. This applies to everyone, but perhaps it is especially important as an employer to think about your crisis preparedness and make sure you have a plan B for running your business.
At the same time, it is important to see the problem from a broader perspective.
Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder takes as an example when American Amazon Web Services went on hiatus in late November, which had several unexpected consequences.
– Smart home devices that were controlled through its services, such as vacuum cleaners and doorbells, were also affected. It may sound funny, but what happens when much more important things stop working?
– It is the concern: we do not know what it depends on, for example, Google or not. We don’t know to what extent society is affected by longer interruptions, he says.
So it’s important to take a step back and look at it at a higher level. It is important to see it as a social problem and not as a problem for people who lose their Internet connection, he believes.
– They work with this in, for example, FRA, Säpo, MSB and the Swedish Armed Forces. You look at the questions, but you may not have reached the goal.
