SOR 1199 How One Backhoe Can Break the Internet

A widespread internet outage affecting services such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Reddit and Discord wasn't caused by hackers or a software bug—it was likely triggered by damage to critical fibre optic infrastructure. In this episode, Chris Jackson explores how a single hardware failure exposed hidden dependencies throughout the internet and why redundancy is often far more fragile than engineers assume. Through real-world examples from aviation, automotive systems, nuclear power and Netflix's famous Chaos Monkey program, Chris explains how common-cause failures defeat backup systems and why understanding these hidden connections is essential for building truly reliable products and infrastructure.