Ship Anchors Rip Up Cable – and Rip Into The Economy
Is the Internet a potential enemy weapon? A chunk of South Asia's booming economy relies on the Internet. In this article, we’ll take a look at the role the Internet is playing in these economies and how they have suffered with disrupted cables.
Yes, it could have been a ship's anchor as a few unconfirmed reports suggest, however, it's possibly too large of an incident to be a coincidence. But are we taking it too far by roving our suspicious senses to miscreants that may be?
While all of that may be true, it is best for us to wake up–us who are in the countries that are building the blocks of their economy by using the Internet as our magic wand— to information assimilation and dissipation. What has caused people to raise question is the fact that these numerous breaks (numbers vary between four to seven) have only affected the Gulf and India and have caused sizeable commotion. Those breaks have affected more than 85-million Internet users in India, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Sudan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. But it seems to have had no effect on internet users in other countries. This has raised serious questions about our intellectual strength and even security, or it could be an indication that we are not doing enough to protect our infrastructure.
Reports say that it was anchors of ships crossing the seas that caused the disruption. But sources also say that records during the time that the cables broke show no marine traffic in most of these regions. Since most cables that have been cut lay next to certain specific nations, it is probably not simply a case of infrastructure or economy. More so it is because reports of ships’ anchors cutting cables under the sea have not been established so far.
Under such a scenario, we want to be cautious about where we could be headed if an incident could disrupt business for days and if our intelligence is not equipped enough to manage a sabotage of this magnitude.
Millions of jobs are being outsourced to Indian shores, and bright lads of the country are picking up opportunities with arms wide open. Is this trend creating enemies for the economy? Are there potential enemies trying to create hurdles or even pack up the systems for us, so that we will not be able to grab a bit of the global economical pie?
The biggest bearers of this threat, therefore, could be the outsourcing industry. The Indian BPO/ITeS industry depends purely on connectivity, and when the support of this backbone is withdrawn at any point, the breakdown is unfathomable.
I still remember the day of chaos at a UK call centre when we were informed about a connectivity outage for the entire day and the anticipated losses that were incurred, not discounting the battering the image of the company got.
Outsourcing generates streams of revenue and jobs for the Indian youth. They and the whole India shining story can be severely affected with serious repercussions that an incident like this can create. With the fall of the dollar, the struggle is hard enough. Add to it the commotion of technical faults or mishaps, and we have the recipe for a collapse.
Even if we spare the outsourcing industry for a moment, there are numerous other places where cables being cut can disrupt business. The exchanges will take a definite hit, as we recently witnessed. The banking system will go for a toss, and billions will be lost in simply managing the damage thereof.
According to Nasscom figures, Indian software and services exports could be earning $60 billion by 2009-2010. With possibilities like this, it is difficult for the industry to take such heat over so many days.
It’s best if we wake up and smell the smoke. Even if we are to believe that some natural or marine issues are to blame, all of us who depend on the internet minute by minute also need to secure it from all potential threats. It was a blessing that Indian companies were able to avoid the crisis using alternate land and satellite solutions. Even in the future, large companies with well-developed backup plans for disaster recovery and continuity might not be affected that much—vis-à-vis companies that do not have the adequate infrastructure for support. But it is a sign that is jeering us to improve or update our infrastructure. Maybe our infrastructure is not fit enough to undertake natural or manmade calamities of these kinds.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is already in discussions with the three primary owners of undersea cables in India—Bharti, Reliance Communications and Tata-managed VSNL—to set up some sort of a mechanism to make our communication network more hard-wearing. What companies need to do is look at this issue with a microscope.
If we look at the corporate scenario that suffers here and needs an immediate solution, one possibility emerges. What went wrong this time and needs urgent attention is the synergy that Internet Service Providers can create if they work in tandem. It would be a good idea for them to come together to create a synergy that allows them to cooperate in such times when either could be the tormented party. At the same time, the end-consumer will be served better, which is the end requirements of all providers anyway.
Anything or everything, from e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, and virtual operation theater, can stop in a split second. It is undoubtedly a “potential disaster without any war or weapon” and we cannot wait for that to happen.
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