I hope our digital systems are robust

[Streetwalker]

Please don't do it! Tell them it was never a condition of your season ticket. If we bow to this nonsense the authorities will just increase more and more control.
Also, ask them how being vaccinated stops anyone either carrying or spreading the virus. As it does not, their demand is illogical, discriminatory and probably illegal, all at the same time.

I wont be Barry , my old flip top isnt apparently smart enough   

[Borchester]

I was musing this morning wondering what would happen in the case of a really bad cyber attack that took out all Internet and digital systems, and I hope our digital systems are robust enough for this not to happen.

I guess we would go back nearly 50 years when I was working through an Open University maths course and when Herself giggled and said, guess what clever clogs, one and one makes three.

I like computers and the internet and such, but the world won't stop turning without them and we will still be able to handle the important things in life.

[Barry]

Ive just been informed to use my season ticket at the footy I will have to download it onto 'my smartphone'  to gain access to the ground .

Please don't do it! Tell them it was never a condition of your season ticket. If we bow to this nonsense the authorities will just increase more and more control.
Also, ask them how being vaccinated stops anyone either carrying or spreading the virus. As it does not, their demand is illogical, discriminatory and probably illegal, all at the same time.

[papasmurf]

Ive just been informed to use my season ticket at the footy I will have to download it onto 'my smartphone'  to gain access to the ground .

Are you sure there is not a "small print" alternative? It looks like another instance of fans being treated like dirt. (It isn't just football.)

[Streetwalker]

Frankly I don't have a use for a smartphone. (I barely use my ancient mobile.)

No nor me until this morning .

Ive just been informed to use my season ticket at the footy I will have to download it onto 'my smartphone'  to gain access to the ground .
Too much information being stored in one place for my liking ,a blip in the system and I wouldn't be able to get on a bus access my bank nor now get to watch a football match .

I suppose we move with the times but the rush to trap us in the system makes the covid conspiracy nutters sound more reasonable by the day .

[Barry]

The internet will continue long after the electricity expires


RFC1149 and RFC2549 will be initiated.

Yeah, right, that's when you can coax them down off a neighbour's roof! 

[johnofgwent]

The internet will continue long after the electricity expires


RFC1149 and RFC2549 will be initiated.

[johnofgwent]

I was musing this morning wondering what would happen in the case of a really bad cyber attack that took out all Internet and digital systems, and I hope our digital systems are robust enough for this not to happen.
We could do nothing at all without a personal visit.
All computer controlled systems would go down. That means electricity goes off.
No phones will work.
No Internet, text, WhatsApp.

Ham Radio enthusiasts might set up RayNet type emergency stations but digital comms, i.e. Police, Fire Ambulance would all be down.

I have no idea how many would survive.

I'm sure my daughters and grand daughters generation will be utterly distraught.


Anyone over fifty will probably heave a sigh of relief.

[papasmurf]

The way forward seems to be a smart phone for all.

Frankly I don't have a use for a smartphone. (I barely use my ancient mobile.)

[cromwell]

I understand that true landlines will be phased out by 2025.
https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/uk-looks-end-analogue-landlines
Not that it makes much difference, because they are based on computer systems and digital exchanges. Many people think they have a landline, but it is really a VoiP system, using data not audio over the copper wires.

I have not had a true landline since 1997. I don't use a home phone now. The way forward seems to be a smart phone for all. However, they are susceptible to the problem in the OP.

Never mind Baz if my memory serves you are still able should the worst happen communicate with at least some in the outside world you may even be viewed as a valuable asset.

[Barry]

I understand that true landlines will be phased out by 2025.
https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/uk-looks-end-analogue-landlines
Not that it makes much difference, because they are based on computer systems and digital exchanges. Many people think they have a landline, but it is really a VoiP system, using data not audio over the copper wires.

I have not had a true landline since 1997. I don't use a home phone now. The way forward seems to be a smart phone for all. However, they are susceptible to the problem in the OP.

[Nick]

That's why until recently we had a plain old telephone landline — provided the phone is wired in and not wireless, it's powered by the exchange, which also has emergency back up. 

Who would you call? 😂

[patman post]

Getting back to the original hope that "our digital systems are robust", I suspect many networks and services the public  either pay directly for, or fund through the goods they buy, offer poor value for money.   


Watching live TV and listening to live radio programmes, it's noticeable how bad this country's communications networks are. Reports from outside locations are frequently of poor quality or disconnect. News radio interviews drop out with hardly a programme immune from at least one lost line. 


For a country that wants to be in the forefront of modern technology, the UK's performance in getting everyone connected at reasonable cost is woeful.   


The UK was among the leaders in the development of digital and fibre in the '70s. But brass terminal and copper wire attitudes prevailed, so the Far East, and then much of advanced Europe, stormed ahead. 


Build Back Better should include government encouragement for robustly digitally networking the whole of the UK at prices every one can afford — it's no more a necessity than a phone now that so much daily life (including such things as doctors' appointments, repeat medications, banking, local authority services, shopping, etc) is online...

[patman post]

That's why until recently we had a plain old telephone landline — provided the phone is wired in and not wireless, it's powered by the exchange, which also has emergency back up. 
Having now switched back to Virgin after Mrs P's well-intentioned but near catastrophic move to EE, our landline is now VoIP. So that goes down too with either or both an internet failure or power cut...

[cromwell]

I was musing this morning wondering what would happen in the case of a really bad cyber attack that took out all Internet and digital systems, and I hope our digital systems are robust enough for this not to happen.
We could do nothing at all without a personal visit.
All computer controlled systems would go down. That means electricity goes off.
No phones will work.
No Internet, text, WhatsApp.

Ham Radio enthusiasts might set up RayNet type emergency stations but digital comms, i.e. Police, Fire Ambulance would all be down.

I have no idea how many would survive.

We are too reliant on such tech,apart from the really serious stuff you highlighted I suspect if you took the Internet,mobile phone,PlayStation,off many people they'd have a breakdown.