How to Prepare for an Internet Outage (2026 Guide)

To prepare for an internet outage, make sure the few things you need for three days don't depend on a connection: cash, a charged power bank, important numbers and documents on paper, the files you work on stored on your own computer, and a recent backup that isn't only online. Then test it by switching off your Wi-Fi and phone data for ten minutes. Below is how to prepare for an internet outage step by step: what governments are asking for in October 2026, what this month's cyber incidents showed, and the full kit.

Why are governments asking people to prepare in 2026?

In the last week of October the UK and Japan joined a growing list of governments asking households to be able to manage on their own for a while:

Country	What households are asked	When
United Kingdom	Three days of supplies, through the new "Be Ready" campaign	Launched 22 October 2026
Japan	Three days, a week if possible	Formal request due 2 November 2026
Germany	About ten days of supplies	Current civil protection guidance
Netherlands	Plan for 72 hours without water, power or internet	"Think Ahead" campaign, since November 2025
United States	Supplies for several days, plus cash and a phone battery	Ready.gov's standing advice, no new campaign

The UK campaign names cyber attacks alongside extreme weather. Its checklist covers water, food that needs no cooking, a torch, a wind-up or battery radio, a charged power bank, cash "in case electronic payments or ATMs are disrupted", copies of important documents and a list of important phone numbers. The Dutch government goes further and says it outright: digital outages can disrupt the country too.

Info

None of this means a disaster is coming. A senior UK minister said he wants people "alert but not alarmed", and this kind of guidance has been published in the UK since 2024.

These lists are mostly water, food and light. This guide covers the digital side.

What was Black October?

"Black October" is the name the press gave to a run of cyber incidents this month. It wasn't one attack. Two of them matter here:

A cloud backup service went dark. In mid-October, a backup service used by businesses stopped running scheduled backups, and its customers couldn't reach or restore their backups while the company investigated a breach.
Websites were switched off on purpose. On 21 October, PHP, the programming language behind a large share of the world's websites, released emergency fixes for two critical flaws. While they patched, several governments took services offline as a precaution: in the Netherlands that included DigiD, the login people use for government services, and in Finland the state's public web services.

Neither was a catastrophe, and Axios headlined its analysis "a Y2K lesson". But both show the same thing: a service you rely on can disappear for a day for reasons that have nothing to do with you, with no warning.

If something you need only exists online, you only have it while you're online.

What happens when the internet and the power go down together?

You don't have to imagine it. On 28 April 2025, most of Spain and Portugal lost power for much of a day. Reuters reported that electronic payment systems went down, cash machines were out of order, many large supermarkets closed because they couldn't take payments, and some businesses took cash only. Phone and internet signals came and went, then dropped entirely.

That's the pattern of a long outage. Everything that needs a server stops at the same moment. Things on paper, in your wallet or stored on your own computer keep working.

How to prepare for an internet outage: the ten-minute test

The quickest way to start is to find out what you'd lose. Switch off your Wi-Fi and your phone's mobile data, then try each of these:

Try this offline	Does it work?	The fix
Call your doctor, a client or a neighbour	Only if the number is saved on the phone or on paper	Write the ten numbers that matter on paper
Pay for fuel or food	Only with cash	Keep some cash at home, in small notes
Open the document you're working on	Only if it's stored on the computer	Keep work files on the computer as well
See what's due this week	Only if your tasks and calendar live on the computer	Use tools that work with no internet
Sign in with a code sent by text	Not if the mobile network is down	Print your backup codes
Find your way somewhere	Only with maps downloaded in advance	Download offline maps for your area

Most people find two or three gaps, and each takes minutes to fix.

Your digital emergency kit

Phone and power

A charged power bank and a cable that fits your phone. Recharge it every few months.
Offline maps of your area, downloaded in your maps app.
A battery or wind-up radio, because phone news needs a working network.

Money

Cash in small notes, enough for a few days of essentials.
Your bank's phone number on paper, in case its app can't connect.

Documents and passwords

Paper copies of ID, insurance details and a list of your medication and doses, as the UK checklist suggests.
A copy of the same documents on an encrypted USB stick.
Printed backup codes for the accounts that use two-step sign-in, starting with email, bank and password manager. Codes sent by text need a mobile network.
A check that your password manager opens with the Wi-Fi off. Many keep a copy on the device, but test yours.

Your work

Your client list, open jobs and this week's deadlines, on your own computer.
The files you're working on, kept on the computer and not only online. Most cloud drives have a setting to keep a folder on the device.
A backup on an external drive that you unplug when it's done. An unplugged drive can't be reached by an attack, and it doesn't need the internet to restore.

A laptop on battery keeps working in a power cut. A tool that needs a server stops, however full the battery is.

A small dark case holding a few essential objects, ready on a quiet surface

How to get your data out of online systems

Do this before an outage, not during one. Almost every online service has an export, usually in the account or privacy settings under a name like "Download your data" or "Export".

What	Where to look	What you get
Email	Account or privacy settings, "Download your data"	An archive of your messages
Contacts	Contacts settings, "Export"	A vCard or CSV file
Calendar	Calendar settings, "Export"	An .ics file any calendar can open
Cloud drive	The folder's menu, "Keep on this device" or "Available offline"	The files themselves, on your computer
Work tools (tasks, projects, CRM)	Settings or admin, "Export"	Usually a CSV or JSON file

A few things people learn the hard way:

Open what you exported. A file you can't open isn't a backup. A CSV should open in any spreadsheet.
Some exports take hours or days to arrive, so start now.
An export is a snapshot. It's out of date the day after you make it. Set a monthly reminder, or keep the work you rely on in software that stores it on your own computer, so there's nothing to export.

Warning

An export of your email or client list holds everything an attacker would want. Keep it on an encrypted drive, not in your downloads folder.

A checklist you can print

Cash in small notes for a few days.
A charged power bank and a cable that fits.
Ten important phone numbers written on paper.
Paper copies of ID, insurance details and your medication list.
Printed backup codes for email, bank and password manager.
Offline maps of your area.
Exports of your contacts, calendar and client list, opened and checked.
The files and records you work on, stored on your own computer.
A backup on a drive you unplug afterwards.
The ten-minute test, done today and again every few months.

Questions people ask

How do I prepare for an internet outage at home? Keep cash, a charged power bank, a battery radio and key phone numbers on paper, download offline maps, and make sure the files you need are on your computer. Then switch the Wi-Fi off for ten minutes and fix whatever stops working.

What should be in a digital emergency kit? A power bank and cable, offline maps, important numbers and documents on paper, printed backup codes for two-step sign-in, an encrypted USB copy of key documents, and a recent backup on a drive you keep unplugged.

What should I do if the internet goes down? First check whether it's only you: restart the router and try your phone's data. If it's wider, save your phone's battery, use a radio for news, pay with cash, and work from what's stored on your computer.

Can I keep working if the internet goes down? Yes, if your work lives on your computer. Documents stored locally and software that works with no internet carry on as normal, on battery if the power is out too. Anything that needs a server waits until the connection comes back.

How do I prepare for an internet shutdown or blackout? The same kit covers both. A shutdown can last longer, so cash, paper copies and your own files matter most.

What was Black October? The name the press gave to a run of cyber incidents in October 2026, including emergency fixes for two critical flaws in PHP that led governments and businesses to take websites offline as a precaution. It was not a single attack.

Is there an official warning in the US? No new one. Ready.gov's standing advice is to keep several days of supplies, including cash and a phone charger with a backup battery, which is close to what the UK and the Netherlands now ask for.

None of this takes more than an afternoon, and most of it costs nothing. The question to ask is simple: if the connection went tomorrow, could you still reach your money, your documents and your work?

PrimeTask is built to pass that test for your work. Projects, tasks and the calendar, with clients and sales in Pro, sit in one system on your own Mac or Windows computer, stored as files on your own disk. It works with no internet. Activation happens once and can be done from another device if this computer is offline, update checks only happen if you ask for them, and nothing about how you use it is sent anywhere. See how PrimeTask works.