Digital dependency in emergency situations

No WhatsApp for a moment, suddenly quite vulnerable

Sometimes it does not take a major incident to realise how dependent you are. I only really noticed it when WhatsApp stopped working the way it normally does. Nothing dramatic. No sirens, no power outage. Just a sudden silence on the channel you unconsciously rely on for everything from “are you on your way” to “can you call me for a moment”.

I wrote briefly about it in Temporarily Without WhatsApp: How Fragile Our Digital Reachability Is. It was only half a day, but it felt as if something self-evident had disappeared. And that is exactly the point. Digital dependency only becomes visible when it falters.

The emergency kit is fine, but mostly analogue

The government recently sent out an instruction booklet on preparing for emergency situations. Many people now have an emergency kit at home. That is good and necessary.

At the same time, it is striking how analogue this way of thinking still is. The emergency kit is built around physical problems you can see and touch. Water, fire, cold. In that world, we are fairly disciplined. A few bottles of water, a radio, some cash, candles.

But the world we live in also runs on digital infrastructure. Not as an extra layer of comfort, but as a foundation for communication, identification, payments, supply chains and decision-making.

We are well prepared for water and fire, but not for digital silence.

What happens when essential digital services disappear

Imagine essential digital services suddenly becoming unavailable. No email. No DigiD. No FaceTime or WhatsApp. No social media. No streaming.

Not because your router is broken, but because the services themselves are unreachable. For example, if a foreign power decides to shut down services that operate outside Europe, or if those services can no longer be delivered due to conflict, sanctions or technical escalation. Many of the systems we rely on are concentrated among a small number of platforms, often outside Europe.

So what stops working?

• Communication: you do not just lose convenience, but reachability. Family, healthcare, school, work, everything depends on the same set of apps.
• Information: news and updates travel along the same digital highways. When those disappear, you suddenly realise how few alternatives you have at hand.
• Access: without DigiD or similar authentication systems, contact with government and institutions becomes difficult, sometimes impossible.

Streaming is not a basic necessity, but its absence is a useful reality check. If even relaxation suddenly becomes impossible, what does that say about everything you do rely on?

Do iOS and Android still work without their ecosystem

A smartphone is increasingly less of a standalone device and more of an access pass to an ecosystem. iOS and Android may technically stay “on”, but without app stores, updates and cloud services, such a device quickly becomes a blunt tool.

Consider the chain you normally do not see:

• App stores: no installation of new apps, no reinstallation after a reset, no quick alternatives when something is missing.
• Updates: security patches stop, but so does compatibility. Apps that still work may suddenly become outdated or stop functioning altogether.
• Cloud services: backups, photos, notes, passwords, contacts. Much of it is not really on your device, but above it.
• Authentication: many apps rely on online checks, tokens and identity services. These too can be single points of failure.

It is not black and white. Phone calls via the mobile network may still work, SMS as well. Offline maps can help. But the overall pattern is clear. We have outsourced our personal infrastructure to systems over which we have very little control.

Energy, logistics and supply chains are more digital than we think

Digital vulnerability does not stop at your phone. Energy supply, logistics and provisioning are deeply intertwined with digital systems.

The question “can shops still be supplied” is, in 2026, also an IT question.

• Inventory management and distribution: planning, routes, pick lists, scanners, warehouse automation. If those systems fail, you cannot simply “go back to paper” without losing speed and oversight.
• Payments: card terminals, contactless payments and online banking are the norm. If payment systems falter, the till closes, even if there are plenty of products.
• Energy: monitoring and control are digital. Fault reports, prioritisation, deployment of technicians all run through systems you do not see, but depend on.

Cash helps, but even there a digital chain exists behind the scenes, with logistics and coordination. And cash is only useful if shops accept it, have change, and the surrounding operation continues to function.

Do we need a digital emergency plan as well

A digital emergency plan does not have to be technical, expensive or paranoid. It is about sober foresight. What do you do if the standard channels fall silent, or if you cannot rely for weeks on “just installing an app”?

Some practical lines of thought, without pretending you can solve everything:

• Communication agreements: who do you contact, when, through which alternative channel, and what if you cannot reach each other?
• Local copies: important documents, addresses, medical information, emergency numbers. Not only in the cloud, but also locally.
• Offline basics: know which functions your device can still perform offline, and make sure those options are prepared (offline maps, emergency numbers, local notes).
• Digital hygiene: not glamorous, but relevant. Keeping updates current as long as possible, passwords in order, recovery codes safe but accessible.

On rijksoverheid.nl (Dutch) and via the National Cyber Security Centre (Dutch), there is increasing attention for cyber resilience. At the same time, the discussion often remains abstract. While the real pain is felt in everyday life. In reachability, access and trust that “it will just work”.

Realism without conspiracy, but also without standby mode

This is not a call for fear or doom thinking. It is a call for mature realism.

We accept that water and energy are vulnerable and we practise scenarios. Digital infrastructure, however, is still too often treated as magically stable. As if apps and platforms are as self-evident as gravity.

Yet digital silence is a scenario worth taking seriously, precisely because it is so invisible. It can start small, with a messaging service going offline. And it can grow large, when multiple essential services fail at once, or when access to systems outside Europe comes under pressure. In discussions about digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy, this has been on the agenda for some time, including within Europe, for example at the European Commission.

Finally: questions that linger

Perhaps the most important preparation is mental: realising that “no internet” today does not just mean boredom, but that processes come to a halt.

A few questions to end on:

• If your main messaging app fails today, how do you reach the people you really need to reach?
• Which essential information exists only in the cloud, and not somewhere you can access without the internet?
• How much of your daily sense of security depends on a single login, a single platform, or a single region outside Europe?
• And if digital silence lasts not an hour, but days or weeks, what is your plan B, and with whom have you already discussed it?

If you want to read more along similar lines, you can also browse more posts on sjoerdblom.nl.