Spain is racing to restore normalcy after the “exceptional” blackout that plunged the entire country into darkness on Monday. At the same time, authorities are working to uncover the cause of an unprecedented electrical collapse, which led to the first-ever nationwide “absolute zero” energy failure. “We have no conclusive evidence about the origin, but we are not ruling out any hypothesis,” President Pedro Sánchez stated during his first appearance following the crisis.
The National Cryptologic Center (CCN), part of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), has launched an investigation into the incident. According to sources from the CCN cited by Servimedia, a “significant unusual activity from North Africa” was detected in the days leading up to the blackout. However, CNI sources consulted by Infobae España urged caution before jumping to conclusions and clarified that the activity did not originate from Morocco.
The investigation focuses on the event that, at 12:33 p.m. on Monday, caused 15 gigawatts—60% of the country’s power consumption at that time—to vanish from the grid in just five seconds. Officials from Moncloa described the event as “highly unusual” and “strange,” something “that had never happened before.”
Authorities are examining whether the blackout is linked to the unusual activity detected in North Africa, especially amid heightened concerns over cyber threats targeting Spain and Portugal’s infrastructure. One working hypothesis, according to Servimedia, suggests a possible distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack combined with the injection of malicious commands into industrial communication protocols (IE). Nevertheless, the sources emphasized that it is too early to confirm a cyberattack. Another line of investigation points to a “multicausal failure” involving the electrical networks of Spain and France. In any case, officials warn that it may take months to determine the exact cause.
In a broader context of rising global tensions, President Sánchez recently remarked that “Europe’s enemies do not only use missiles and tanks to attack us; they also turn to social media to spread disinformation, polarize populations, and launch cyberattacks coordinated with artificial intelligence to compromise our communications, public services, and, ultimately, our way of life.”
Spain has recently become one of the countries most targeted by cyberattacks, partly due to its stance on the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
