In recent weeks, large parts of the internet have been down for various periods. Both Microsoft and Amazon have had problems with their so-called cloud services, and as a result, everything from the Systembolaget website to Snapchat and Minecraft have been down for several hours.
In the Western world, we only have a few so-called hyperscalers, so it has very big consequences when they are down, says Karl-Emil Nikka, IT security expert from the Swedish Anti-Theft Association.
Three big ones
Roughly simplified, cloud services are a way for companies and organizations to have their services on someone else's computer or server, instead of having the required infrastructure themselves.
An incredible number of services and companies rely on them, there are very few that are not in some way dependent on the big three, says Pontus Johnson, professor at the Center for Cyber Defense and Information Security at KTH in Stockholm.
The big three, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, account for an estimated at least 60 percent of the entire cloud services market.
Security question
Both Johnson and Nikka point out that the big three are very reliable and well-regarded in this context.
"What we as a society should think about is the concentration of these services. These are the best there are, but they are also three American companies," says Karl-Emil Nikka.
They have an outstanding history of cybersecurity, and using a cloud service is much better than running your own IT security-wise, says Pontus Johnson and continues:
But if someone were to succeed in taking them down, or taking control, the consequences would be completely catastrophic.
“Not invulnerable”
How likely is it that we will see similar disruptions in the future?
We will see more mistakes, like this last time with Microsoft's Azure service. A so-called configuration error. As long as we have this concentration of services, there is a vulnerability, says Karl-Emil Nikka.
These services are not invulnerable. Among other things, with the development of AI, there is a risk that we will see attacks on infrastructure that was previously unaffected, says Pontus Johnson.
