Portugal, Spain blackout: What caused the blackout that affected 50 million people?

An unprecedented blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill earlier this week, which is something that could have local consequences.

Blackout in Portugal, Spain: What happened?

Most power has been restored after a blackout brought the countries to a standstill on Monday. It knocked out traffic lights, cut phone service and stopped subway and railways.

Some 50 million people were impacted. 

What they're saying:

"Our door was electric for our AirBNB, so we were locked out and there wasn’t a way to get in," said Jessica Lopez who was stranded in Spain while on vacation from the U.S. "There was a lot of people sleeping in the train stations yesterday, and we saw a lot of people on the streets with their suitcases and had nowhere to go."

Lopez said, "I started to panic a little bit. I was worried about what was happening, that we didn’t know that was happening, since we didn’t have any access to social media or the news. Our kids were in the United States, so we were worried about what they were hearing and not being able to communicate with us as well."

Power is restored but the big question - what caused this? The answer is: We don’t know. There are many possibilities including a cyberattack. 

"We being the United States, should overlook our infrastructure and what can be exposed and do penetration tests and just a complete overlook of where our vulnerabilities might be," said Matt Burk, a cybersecurity expert and President of Burk Technology. "Anytime you put data online, and if it’s personal data or business data, you need to make sure to go through the proper steps to make sure it’s secure and if you don’t know how to secure it, there are many people that are out there that are willing to help and make sure your information is protected."

Most companies provide a free initial security scan to make sure everything is in place. Experts recommend ‘blackout kits’ include: candles, matches, water, a battery-powered radio, canned/dried food, and pet food. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) can also help keep essential electronics running during a short outage.