"The digital pandemic" - a real threat.

By 2025, an estimated 376 billion emails are sent and received daily worldwide. So, what would happen if this smoothly functioning system in the internet suddenly malfunctioned? That's a catastrophic risk, not just a purely technical issue.

1. When we think about digital threats, we probably immediately think of cyberattacks, ransomware, or the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI). While very real, these threats are only the tip of the iceberg.

Because, in fact, the story could be even more "unlucky" for humankind. An extreme heatwave paralyzing a data center, an anchor accidentally severing an underwater fiber optic cable, a satellite collision in space, a software error, a technical malfunction, an earthquake…

All of these scenarios can quickly escalate into a "butterfly effect": traffic lights paralyzed, hospitals unable to access patient records, payments frozen, emergency services disrupted…

Within hours, the impact can spread to a crisis level, similar to an entire nation losing connectivity for weeks due to a natural disaster.

And that is the outline of the term "digital pandemic" - a threat that the United Nations warned about on May 5th, through a report titled "When digital systems fail: The hidden risks of our digital world ".

2. Nothing here is fictional; the worst-case scenarios and possibilities mentioned stem from numerous negative experiences that humanity has gone through to varying degrees since the internet and digital space became an integral part of life.

In the memories of generations born before 2000 and who were conscious around the turn of the two millennia, the concept of the "Y2K problem" has certainly not completely faded away.

It was a feeling of fear, of the possibility (just a possibility) that on New Year's Eve 2000, millions of computers worldwide would automatically jump back to "year zero," bringing chaos to the entire planet.

Twenty-six years later, the United Nations report further highlights the fragility of closely interconnected digital systems, thereby emphasizing the urgent need for preparedness pathways.

The report also emphasizes that while the world is increasingly dependent on digital technology , it is also losing skills and alternatives in the non-digital environment (or, in short, classic alternatives that existed and operated before the digital age). When large systems fail, many services no longer have backup operational options.

According to Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU): Resilience needs to be “integrated at the core” of the technologies on which people depend. The report calls for a systemic view of risk and a shift in how we protect global connectivity platforms.

3. Most importantly, as ITU Deputy Secretary-General Tomas Lamanaukas commented: “The digital pandemic” is a catastrophic risk, not just a purely technical issue.

If governments plan to respond to natural disasters or fires, they also need to prepare for the risk of digital system collapse, with the question: Who will be held responsible?

Which system areas need priority protection? What would happen if the power grid, network connectivity, and cloud services were all disrupted simultaneously?

No single nation can solve this problem alone, nor any other global challenge. Therefore, proactive coordination aimed at building practical capacity to respond to, mitigate, and limit "digital shocks" should, perhaps from now on, be considered a top non-traditional security challenge for all nations.

( According to nhandan.vn )

Source: https://baodongthap.vn/-ai-dich-so-nguy-co-co-that-a240672.html