Could a flu pandemic Crash the internet?

With last weeks news of h1n1 being declared a national emergency, new fears are arising about the potential crash of the internet. Experts are warning that Internet access during a pandemic could be severely restricted.

During a pandemic emergency many organizations and government offices plan to a keep their operations going  with teleworking using the Internet. If this happens it could cause massive amounts of network congestion and has the potential to put a major strain on our critical telecommunications infrastructure.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report  that says a serious influenza pandemic might could cause a massive spike in internet traffic because of large numbers of people staying at home. The report says:

“Increased use of the Internet by students, teleworkers, and others during a severe pandemic is expected to create congestion in Internet access networks that serve metropolitan and other residential neighborhoods.”

The report also recommends that the government may need to  police the internet by limiting people’s bandwidth or blocking high bandwidth sites.