- Spain and Portugal suffered a major power outage this week
- Telcos scrambled to switch to power back-up options to maintain at least some services
- Ookla and Cloudflare have reported on the performance of the mobile operators and the impact on internet traffic volumes
Network operators of all kinds are increasingly concerned about the impacts of cyberattacks but there are plenty of other security concerns to be considered too – just ask the telecom network and datacentre operators in Spain and Portugal about the impact of a national power outage, something that the Iberian peninsula has just experienced.
The power grid suffered what is known as “net zero” in the middle of the day on Monday 28 April, leading to major disruption to transport, trade and general life in the two countries and the need for emergency power supply measures in critical sectors, such as healthcare and communications. The power grid was brought back online in increments starting later the same day and, by the middle of Tuesday, 99% of the grid was restored. A cyberattack has, at least so far, been ruled out as the cause of the outage, according to this Reuters report.
