WASHINGTON -- A federal report released on Oct. 26 from the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns that as H1N1 spreads and more and more Americans are staying home, the surplus of Web users could very well "clog" the Internet.
According to the report entitled "Influenza Pandemic: Key Securities Market Participants Are Making Progress, but Agencies Could Do More to Address Potential Internet Congestion and Encourage Readiness", concerns exist that mass amounts of Web users working from home, surfing the Internet, watching videos or playing video games could ultimately overwhelm Internet service providers' capacities.
One possible outcome of the congestion could potentially prevent broker-dealers and other market participants from telecommuting.
The act of ensuring telecommunication infrastructure falls on the Department Of Homeland Securing (DHS). However, the department doesn't have a full strategy to deal with the problem.
It's possible that network operatating institutions could lay down more private lines, but that solution would be timely and costly. Also, shutting down access to popular sites could have regulatory issues and cause a negative impact on e-commerce as well.
In order to address this possible problem the report adds:
"DHS has already been working to address threats to the Internet, for example, by establishing an Internet Disruption Working Group to work with the private sector to establish priorities and develop action plans to prevent major disruptions of the Internet and to identify recovery measures in the event of a major disruption. DHS also has an ongoing relationship with the communications sector coordinating council, which consists of various private sector telecommunications providers, that could assist in assessing and developing solutions to this issue. As a result of these responsibilities and its existing capabilities, we believe that DHS is the appropriate agency to take the lead in developing a strategy to address potential pandemic-related Internet congestion and to coordinate with other relevant federal and private sector entities about actions that could reduce such congestion. "
You can read more by following the Related Links to the left.
The Washington Post's Cecilia Kane contributed to this report. Read the full article here.
