When Servers Fail, Who Pays the Price?

By: Abdullah Saeed Al Habsi

A bank can explain to its customers that a glitch occurred at a third-party technology company, and its explanation may be technically correct. However, a shop owner who has stopped collecting payments for goods, or an employee waiting for a salary transfer who cannot pay their bills, cannot settle obligations with a technical report about why servers went down. For them, the problem persists until they receive a clear answer regarding their money and transaction.

When Cloud Services Fail

On October 20, cloud services linked to Google experienced a disruption in Britain, coinciding with the outage of some banking services. Reports pointed to a power-related issue, and the incident was not proven to be a cyberattack. What matters in the news is not pointing fingers, but understanding the wide gap between the responsibility of the tech operator and that of the institution dealing with the public.

A Bank’s Responsibility Does Not End with the Tech Provider

It is natural for banks to rely on specialized companies for operations, storage, and security. Using modern technologies reduces certain costs and increases the speed of service delivery. However, the contract signed between a bank and its provider is not signed by the customer, and it should not turn into an excuse that delays the answer to a simple question: has the financial transaction gone through or not?

The Return of the App Does Not Mean the Crisis Is Over

The problem lies in the fact that some institutions measure the end of a crisis by the return of an app to operation, while customers remain preoccupied with pending transactions. The system may come back online while a state of doubt persists over paying a bill or settling a due amount. If a customer attempts to pay twice without sufficient information, they may face another problem even more difficult than the initial delay. Therefore, accurate information about the status of a transaction is part of recovery itself.

Trust in Digital Services and Customer Protection

This issue is as important to the banking sector in Egypt as it is to any economy dependent on digital payments. The small merchant does not always have a risk department, and families do not always have alternative accounts. Some people may interpret the lack of communication during an outage as proof that digital services are unsafe, even if the money remains secure. Here, trust is damaged because of poor communication, not because of lost money.

What Are the Customer’s Rights During an Outage?

The solution begins by defining customer rights during an outage: where to check the status of a transfer, when it is safe to retry, what alternative channel to use for verification, and how to submit a complaint. Moreover, customer service staff must not be the last to know the scale of the problem. They are the frontline receiving the public’s anger, and they need information and real escalation authority, not generic phrases they repeat without the ability to help.

Emergency Tests and Coordination Between Institutions

The Bank of England announced a cloud outage simulation exercise involving major financial institutions on October 8, and the official announcement can be viewed here:

Bank of England official announcement on the cloud outage simulation exercise.

The importance of such exercises stands out in testing coordination among multiple parties, rather than merely confirming that a backup server is running.

The Responsibility Felt by the Customer

These observations do not mean a rejection of cloud computing; it has become an important element in developing services. But they serve as a reminder that the responsibility seen by the customer does not automatically transfer with an operating contract. Institutions must test emergency procedures from the seat of the customer whose transfer did not arrive, not just from the screen of the employee who sees that the system is back up.

An entity that asks people to trust its digital services must prove its ability to address them during outage hours with the same clarity it uses in its advertisements. The real cost of a crisis is not always the money that stalled, but the trust that eroded because nobody answered.

Abdullah Saeed Al Habsi, MIoL

Emirati writer and researcher specializing in security, heritage, risk management, and security control and command room operations.

Member of the Institute of Leadership (UK), United Kingdom.

A.S. Alhebsi

Published by Hany Sallam

Hany Sallam, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Scientific Magazine Ahram
An independent Arabic science magazine operating since 2008, dedicated to simplifying science, technology, space, natural phenomena and scientific stories for Arabic readers. The magazine includes sections such as “Zodiac Group” and “Stories and Tales”, alongside science topics that combine knowledge with a spirit of discovery. It operates independently and is not affiliated with Al-Ahram Press Foundation or any governmental body.