From energy supply to modern household appliances, transport and mobility to healthcare - digital technologies are everywhere, very often to our benefit. But what happens when the infrastructures behind them suddenly stop working? How can government institutions, for example, prepare for cyberattacks?
"Digitization has long permeated countless areas of infrastructure. However, the development does not always follow a clear concept, but is often driven by technological trends and economic interests," says Stefan Strauß, project manager and senior scientist at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Together with Steffen Bettin (ITA), he has investigated institutional but also individual effects of this development on the basis of selected case studies in the project "Digitalization, Vulnerability and Societal Infrastructures".
The study shows that digitized infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex and therefor prone to error. According to Strauß, many problems, especially loss of control, are not necessarily due to the use of technology, but to inadequate security and business models of the platform economy. Technology companies could exert more and more pressure through their growing power over the market: "Growing information and power asymmetries are a fundamental problem of digitalization. They lead to more technological and economic dependencies, for companies as well as households and individuals," Strauß emphasizes.
Strengthening resilience for a secure basic supply
This development also has consequences for security of supply and meeting basic social needs. New possibilities, such as remote access to digital systems, can lead to a loss of control, as the study shows. It is therefore essential not only to secure infrastructures against attacks or technical risks, but also to have a broader understanding of vulnerability - also in order to recognize weak points and dependencies: "Often, digitalization is carried out quickly without awareness of the longer-term consequences. In addition to cybersecurity, care must also be taken to ensure that security of supply and fundamental rights are not jeopardized," says Strauß. The ongoing digitization of societal infrastructures raises fundamental questions that are currently being renegotiated, he adds. Who controls infrastructures? What roles do state and private actors play in the provision of public services? How can resilience be strengthened for secure basic services in line with fundamental rights and basic needs? "This is an issue we need to address so that we as a society do not become more vulnerable, but more resilient," says Strauß.