Why Digital Infrastructure Is the Next Global Fragility
Shaun Andreazza
Staff Writer
Within the modern digitized world, digital infrastructure serves as a backbone for the global economy as we know it. This infrastructure also provides daily life and national security, yet this system is fragile. Liabilities concerning the infrastructure include concentrated dependency, physical weak points, and geopolitical tensions, all leading to increasing risk systematically.
When data is uploaded to any cloud, it flows through a web of either cables undersea, fiber-optic systems, or data centers. These systems are pieces of infrastructure most people often misinterpret or do not understand, but they can get exposed in coming times. To begin with, the subsea cables that transmit data are not immune to national disasters such as climate-change caused events. These include rising sea levels, seismic events, and storms which currently pose threats for many cables around the world. Recent research suggests that these threats should not be taken lightly as in one case Red Sea cable cuts disrupted internet networks globally.
The current “Cloud” services utilize data centers that require mass energy, supply chains reaching all parts of the world, and hardware which is specialized to retrieve and store data. Outages within these data centers can disrupt the internet on a large scale taking down millions of websites with the hit of a switch. With these data centers requiring rare-earth materials to run hardware, these outages can interfere with supply chains and need costly repairs. The ability to disrupt or control data centers has become a clearcut focus for geopolitical powers as data holds the key to the internet. Also, digital infrastructure has become concentrated in only a few companies which dominate the global data traffic industry which can improve efficiency yet increase damage to the internet if there were to be an outage at a single corporation.
As shown, digital infrastructure comes with a dangerous flip side. It can be weaponized. Countries can intercept data mid-transfer, mess with digital routes, or straight up hijack them. AI powered cyberweapons make this even worse because they can hit undersea cables and data centers, taking down cloud services, spreading disinformation, or disrupting entire systems. All of this ramps up the global competition for data access.
Because of that, digital infrastructure isn’t just some tech system running in the background. It’s a strategic asset that is much more fragile than people want to admit. In a world where data equals power, the foundation holding up the internet needs serious attention. If we let the digital backbone fall apart, the fallout won’t stay online. It’ll bleed into the economy, global politics, and change everyday life.
Contact Shaun at shaun.andreazza@student.shu.edu