Digital infrastructure is no longer just a support layer for the economy – it has become a critical condition for the functioning of the state. A failure of one system can trigger a cascade that shuts down entire cities, warns Grzegorz Wawryniuk, Director of Product and Marketing at EXATEL.
During the CYBERSEC EXPO&FORUM conference, Wawryniuk explained that a single breakdown in data transmission networks, data centers, or IT security systems can quickly spill over into energy, transport, banking, healthcare, and public services. – If a data transmission network stops working, or data center services fail, or IT security systems go down, it automatically impacts critical infrastructure – he said. – This is an entire ecosystem that supports the functioning of the state – he added.
The digital domino effect
Wawryniuk emphasized that in an economy where public services, business, and administration rely on a shared digital layer, a disruption in data transmission or cloud availability can rapidly affect entire sectors. – Not long ago, a data center failure was mainly a business issue for the provider. Today, with data and services migrating to the cloud, it does not matter whether we talk about private or public cloud. It still requires data transmission, data itself, and IT security – he noted. – A failure of just one of these elements is enough to trigger a domino effect. Healthcare, digital services, communication can stop working. Entire cities may come to a halt because of a failure in one of these ecosystems – he warned.
Resilience over reaction
The concept of state resilience must therefore evolve. It is not about preventing every attack – that is unrealistic – but about maintaining operations despite incidents, rapidly restoring services, and limiting the effects of disruptions. – We have moved from managing IT security incidents to building institutional resilience – Wawryniuk said. – We cannot ensure that incidents will not happen. We cannot fully defend against them. What we must do is build all necessary elements to be resilient to threats, both physical and digital, and restore continuity as quickly as possible – he stressed.
Digital sovereignty in practice
The discussion also touched on digital sovereignty. According to Wawryniuk, it does not mean that the state must produce every technology or control every line of code. – It does not mean that the state should build all technologies and have control over them, have the code for technology and software. Above all, the state should have control over critical infrastructure: data transmission networks and data centers – he said. Practical resilience also requires redundancy, the ability to quickly recover resources, and skilled professionals. – The most important elements of infrastructure should have redundancy to maintain continuity. This is the digital resilience we as a state and society should build – he added.
Finally, Wawryniuk highlighted the need for everyday, operational cooperation between telecoms, energy providers, data center operators, tech companies, administration, and incident response teams. – Such nationwide cooperation will make the state more resilient to threats – he assessed.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. WNP.PL
