Junior Harshita Vallepalli is a Camel CyberPatriot team leader and the president of Women in Cybersecurity, roles that put her at the forefront of conversations about online safety and digital reliability. As internet outages become increasingly common and problematic, from disrupting learning in schools to disrupting operations in hospitals, it is increasingly important to understand why these outages are happening and how they are impacting our lives. Vallepalli joins cybersecurity teacher Carey Anderson to answer a series of questions related to major internet outages, our collective reliance on online access and how our individual, corporate and government efforts can improve online safety and online infrastructure below.

What are the most common reasons we see worldwide internet outages?

Vallepalli: I would say Internet outages are mainly from data breaches because everyone is getting more advanced with their technology including AI. So it definitely plays a part in why the Internet has been going out so much. Everything is connected all through one database, so if one goes down then everything else around will go down. 

Anderson: There are breaches that happen around us all the time and every minute of the day. You saw an outage here at the school when AWS had an outage and you also saw the recent outage that we had with Cloudware. 

How can major internet outages affect things people do every day, like work or school?

Vallepalli: With school, we all rely on devices a lot. So not having any Internet would really make us go more old-school not having us be able to access things we normally need like online textbooks. With work, a lot of careers rely a lot on online stuff and places like hospitals rely a lot on the Internet, and having Internet go out for them could really be like a major blow. 

Anderson: We can talk about those two particular outages that happen. As what we did in Cybersecurity PLTW class is we really investigated where did that come from and companies are affected. You can go to downdetector.com and see the listing of all these different companies that are having outages. So, for us, we noticed the day AWS was out that Canvas was out. We also noticed with Cloudware that we couldn’t use AI very well. You should take a look at those and think about how reliant we are on those two different services and how many different apps and companies used those services.  

Do you think we are too dependent on the internet, and what problems does that create when it stops working?

Vallepalli: I would say we are really dependent on the Internet and have a lot of problems, including different things. As I said before, with hospitals, it really leaves a lot of patients wondering what is going on. It gets rid of a lot of communication between different areas with a barrier between everybody. 

Anderson: Well, the Internet is the largest network in the world. We all love it and use it, and we should look at the pros before we look at maybe why we’re feeling there’s a problem with it recently. The pros are that now, no matter where you are in the world, you can communicate with anybody instantly, which is phenomenal because that is the only network that can do that. So with that much power, there could be more people who are relying too on it. 

How can companies or the government make the internet more reliable and reduce the possibility of future outages?

Vallepalli: I would say definitely strengthen the redundancy as well. Making sure it’s more redundant so if a router goes out they are able to fix it really fast. Making sure nobody is able to breach it. So to make sure the Internet is more secure from other foreign countries. 

Anderson: Training. So Indiana has over 3,000 jobs in this area of cybersecurity that are open right now. We need more qualified people that can defend against all these different breaches. 

Can personal data be at risk during these internet outages and how can people prevent that risk?

Vallepalli: I would say during an internet outage, especially from a data breach, there is a lot of personal data that can be accessed, especially from different websites. So it is really good to make sure you’re using the right website and no one is trying to scam you. Not clicking on any bad emails during an Internet outage. 

Anderson: Yes, people can go in and check their settings and change from public to private, on many different apps and many different tools. Now it takes a student to know that or a person to know that. Again, it goes back to the one thing since you were a small child. Everything that you post online can be seen and make sure that you want it safe. Password protection and two-step authentication. 

Is there anything else that readers should know about for Cybersecurity Awareness?

Vallepalli: I would definitely make sure your passwords are secure using a password manager instead of writing your passwords down in a certain area. Once you write down, it’s not a secretive place. It would make it easier for people to access your personal data. 

Anderson: It is the Internet, and there is a redundancy. It has all these packages of information traveling all over. Unfortunately, you will have malicious software and malicious people wanting to hack into that system.