From the earthquakes and tsunamis that pounded Japan to the floods in Australia, the headlines this year have provided many examples of just how fragile IT infrastructures are in the face of disaster. And it’s not just natural catastrophes that companies need to be aware of, but human-caused calamities as well.

In Egypt, the government pulled the plug on the country’s entire internet infrastructure in an attempt to shut down protests organised through social media. One of the most significant and prolonged infrastructure outages this year – the total collapse of Sony’s PlayStation Network online gaming service in April – was caused by hackers.