Tech Vulnerability Will Cause Havoc

15 Sivan 5779

Is it hacking or is it solar/cosmic ray disruption?  The following events all happened around the same time - June 13 through June 16.

Hunt for cause of massive South America power outage begins

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — As lights turned back on across Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay after a massive blackout that hit tens of millions people, authorities were still largely in the dark about what caused the collapse of the interconnected grid and were tallying the damage from the unforeseen disaster.

Target Checkouts Hit by Outage

Vodafone network down across Europe with hundreds of customers unable to make calls or use the internet

TalkTalk down: Furious customers unable to send emails or connect to internet

PSN DOWN, NOT WORKING? PS4 SERVICES ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

Instagram outage: Facebook’s photo sharing service went down for multiple hours

Spotify Outage Not Related to Update

Outage leaves 2,000 in South Bay without power

My internet went off late Friday afternoon, but seemed to be working fine after Shabbat. Around noon yesterday, it went down again for at least two hours.  My service provider could not seem to tell me what was wrong. After several calls and long waits, I got a promise for a technician to come only on Tuesday. Suddenly, it began to work again on its own. I had to try all day today to get them on the phone to cancel the technician. An automated message kept telling me there was no service to the line. 

When I finally got through, I heard the usual greeting and my ID number was requested. After typing it in, I heard "Good-bye." And that was it.

A sudden loss of tech is not only annoying, it makes one acutely aware of how dependent one has become upon it. 

Although cyber attacks are uppermost in many people's minds when something like this happens, it is far more likely that these "outages" are due to a more natural cause. 

A forecast that's really cosmic: Space climate will affect your weather - and your tech

If you're like most people, you care only how weather will affect your clothing or commute.

But far-off weather could put a damper on modern life.

Conditions on the sun, our closest star, have an impact on Earth's climate and technology, such as GPS, electric power transmission, and radio and satellite communications.

Rogue Cosmic Rays From Outer Space Are Causing Havoc With Our Smartphones

Under Earth's protective magnetic field, we don't usually need to worry too much about the health effects of cosmic radiation – although it's something that's known to impact astronauts in space, and even passengers travelling in airplanes.

But the same can't be said for our technological systems – fierce solar storms can wreak havoc on Earth's communication networks, and new research shows that even ordinary levels of cosmic radiation can have a disruptive effect on our personal devices.

"This is a really big problem, but it is mostly invisible to the public," says electrical engineer Bharat Bhuva from Vanderbilt University.

"Mostly invisible to the public" - until now.  And the reason for that is, the influence of cosmic rays is increasing with the grand solar minimum.  We can look for more disruption in the near future.