A power cut by anti-government protesters at CAT Telecom in Bang Rak district the past weekend cost internet-related firms opportunities worth at least 1 billion baht, says an internet service provider.
The SET-listed Internet Thailand Plc (INET) described the episode as a wake-up call for companies to adopt continuity and data management plans to minimise the impact of business disruptions.
Wanchai Vach-shewadumrong, INET's deputy managing director, said the 10-hour downtime resulted in companies having to pay fines of up to 300 million baht for failing to meet specific service levels.
The cost estimate is based on the number of customers using CAT's internet infrastructure, which makes up 20% of the country's total in a market worth 30 billion baht.
Mr Wanchai also raised the issue of whether the sabotage was an inside job, as the state telecom enterprise's data centre is a restricted area that requires a physical security clearance.
Had the incident occurred on a weekday, he said, the damage could have reached 6 billion baht.
The incident also offered a lesson for firms preparing for dynamic load balancing in a distributed computer system.
"Having at least two locations for their computer server systems and using more than one internet service provider are effective preventive measures," said Mr Wanchai, who suggested virtualisation and cloud-based computer services as affordable alternatives, allowing flexible migration service between data centres.
Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, president of the Thai E-Commerce Association, said at least 10% of all websites were affected by CAT's service disruption.
He said the incident damaged the reputation and credibility of CAT in terms of its security standards.
Global companies might reconsider using data centres overseas to guard against potential risk from a future outage. Local firms could opt for multiple data centres, instead of relying on a single internet service provider.
Kosit Suksingha, managing director of TCC Technology, Thailand's leading data centre provider, urged all ICT firms to strengthen their security and privacy measures.
He said companies could turn the crisis into an opportunity by recognising the importance of using the open-standard technology platform to reduce future risks.
Meanwhile, CAT reported a loss of 300 million baht from the power cut, affecting 92,000 customers using the state telecom enterprise's system.
The damage caused an interruption in the electrical system and computer hardware, said chief executive Kittisak Sriprasert.
The data centre is CAT's prime hub for both domestic exchange and international internet-gateway infrastructure.
Mr Kittisak acknowledged that CAT has a weak security system: "We need to improve our security standards and invest more to upgrade our system to cope with future incidents."
CAT is planning to set up more disaster recovery sites, he said.