On February 9, 2025, Sri Lanka suffered a nationwide power outage triggered by a monkey entering a substation. This event underscores the vulnerability of IT and telecommunications networks, highlighted by findings from the BCI Horizon Scan Report 2024 which ranked such outages as significant organizational risks. Incident-agnostic planning can enhance resilience by preparing organizations for diverse disruptions through redundancy and flexible strategies.
On February 9, 2025, Sri Lanka faced a nationwide power outage when a monkey disrupted a substation, leading to a significant power imbalance. Engineers had warned previous governments about upgrading the power systems due to inherent vulnerabilities. One source stated that the national power grid’s fragility could result in frequent power outages from even minor disturbances.
Animal-related incidents impacting electrical systems, although rare, highlight the vulnerability to disruptions alongside other threats such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, and hardware failures. This incident parallels earlier disruptions in telecommunications networks, which underscore the critical need for robust planning against such occurrences.
The BCI Horizon Scan Report 2024 indicated that outages in IT and telecommunications remain a leading risk for organizations. The widespread outage in Sri Lanka prompted the Ceylon Electricity Board to implement power cuts, restoring service after several hours of work to repair the transformer. Investigations into the cause of the outage are being conducted by the energy ministry.
While many organizations had backup generators and communication systems ready, the unprepared ones struggled to continue operations during the outage. This scenario underscores the necessity of incident-agnostic planning, which focuses on strategies adaptable to various incidents, enhancing organizational resilience regardless of disruption causes.
Agnostic planning incorporates tools like geographic redundancy, cloud solutions, and automated incident responses to mitigate risks. Nicholas Rushton-Young MBCI emphasized addressing single points of failure by diversifying connectivity through multiple providers. Ensuring that diverse routing and redundancy in infrastructure are prioritized can significantly bolster resilience.
Key steps for organizations include auditing supply networks, maintaining remote work policies, educating leadership about risks, and preparing pre-written PR statements. The BCI Horizon Scan Report 2024 discovered an increase in diverse crises and overlapping critical events, highlighting the relevance of broad-range planning. Utilizing this data can help organizations foster resilience against future IT and telecom outages.
The Sri Lanka power outage emphasizes the critical need for incident-agnostic planning among organizations. By preparing for a variety of disruptions rather than specific causes, organizations can enhance resilience and operational continuity. Strategies such as geographic redundancy and infrastructure diversification are vital in preventing extensive outages and maintaining reliable operations in the face of unexpected incidents.
Original Source: www.thebci.org
