It wasn't that long ago the internet wasn't really that big a deal.
In 1993, only one per cent of globally telecommunicated information flowed through the internet. Its rise to domination was rapid, however. By 2000, it was handling more than 50 per cent and seven years after that it was 97 per cent.
Today, it is hard to imagine a world without the internet. We rely on it for pretty much all of our commercial, educational, healthcare and entertainment needs.
It has become critical infrastructure. But it still isn't fully treated that way.
On Aug. 8, we were reminded once again just how vulnerable we are in northwest B.C. At approximately 8:30 p.m. that evening, vandals cut and stole a section of the TELUS fibre-optic cable somewhere between Hazelton and Smithers.
It knocked out internet service to a huge swath of the Northwest including all of Terrace, Kitimat and Prince Rupert affecting thousands of users.
Northwesterners may also recall a massive outage on June 7, 2022 that affected everything from Burns Lake west to Haida Gwaii. That one was caused by a single beaver.
It would seem almost silly that a beaver could take out critical infrastructure if it wasn't for the chaos that ensued.
One of the hallmarks of managing critical systems is redundancy. We have none.
The Connected Coast project is supposed to help with that.
"By providing links from northern BC, and around Vancouver Island to the internet exchange in Vancouver, the infrastructure will increase service reliability for residents on the mainland, on the island and in rural and remote coastal communities by providing an alternate route for service, known as a redundancy," the project website states.
In the meantime, if beavers and vandals can do this to us, more has to be done to protect the infrastructure.
