Late Monday morning, a massive power outage struck the Iberian Peninsula, affecting all of Spain, Portugal, and briefly southern France (La Presse). Air traffic was severely disrupted, particularly in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon. Spanish rail traffic was completely paralyzed. Many residents were left without phone service and desperately searched for a connection point.
The situation required the mobilization of enormous resources. In Spain, Red Electrica said its teams would need six to ten hours to restore service. Several Spanish nuclear power plants were shut down as a precaution, in accordance with safety procedures.
In France, the grid operator RTE responded quickly to restore part of the Spanish grid with 700 MW of power, with the capacity to increase this support if necessary.
For the moment, there has been no confirmation of a cyberattack, although the European Union has emphasized that all possibilities are being investigated.
This possibility alone raises an important question: what if a cyberattack could actually deprive an entire country—or even several countries—of electricity? What would be the target, and what would the consequences be?
Why put a country in the dark?
Hypothesis: a cyber threat
In the world of modern cyber threats, energy is an obvious strategic target. Electricity is not only a vital service, it is the invisible backbone that supports all other infrastructure: transportation, hospitals, banks, communications.
Cutting off the power doesn’t just turn off the lights. It brings subways to a standstill, blocks transportation networks, prevents emergency services from functioning normally, and leaves businesses and individuals unable to operate.
But the goal goes far beyond the immediate impact. A massive blackout aims to:
- Test the resilience of a state and its essential services,
- Create panic and destabilize public confidence,
- Occupy resources to divert attention from other malicious actions,
- And, in an interconnected European network, cause a domino effect on neighboring countries.
And it is important to understand that the purpose of a cyberattack of this type is not necessarily to keep a country in the dark for days.
A few hours of disruption is often enough to achieve several objectives. These include temporarily paralyzing the economy, causing confusion, exposing a government’s vulnerabilities, or diverting attention from another strategic operation. In a world where instability can be used as a lever for negotiation or geopolitical pressure, a few hours of darkness can be enough to gain real advantages.
It’s a bit like turning off the light in an anthill: even if the light comes back on quickly, the chaos caused in a few minutes can leave much more lasting damage.
What SMEs need to remember
On a different scale, many SMEs face a similar reality.
They depend on aging IT infrastructure that is often ill-suited to today’s threats. Outdated servers, lack of updates, and inadequate backup plans are all vulnerabilities that, like an old electrical grid, increase the risk of sudden failure.
A cyberattack or a simple breakdown can cause major disruptions: data loss, production stoppages, loss of credibility. And in a world where agility is vital, a few hours of downtime can be enough to lose customers, contracts… and sometimes much more.
The key is not to be afraid, but to recognize that resilience must be anticipated, planned, and maintained on a daily basis.
The Mon Technicien approach: prevention instead of reaction
At My Technician, we firmly believe that the best defense is prevention.
We support SMEs in assessing, modernizing, and securing their IT infrastructure. We know that a reliable system today is a lever for growth tomorrow.
Through audit, preventive maintenance, continuous monitoring, and strategic planning services, we help our clients build robust technology environments that can withstand the unexpected, breakdowns, and cyber threats.
Just as a city needs a reliable power grid to thrive, an SME needs a secure IT system to grow with peace of mind.
Thought for the day: “It’s better to repair a roof when the sun is shining than when it’s raining.”
in your taskbar.