A good friend, a fellow prepper, and I were having a discussion. He was concerned about our country’s vulnerability to foreign hackers. It’s already happened on a small scale. Well, I guess it’s small scale if you aren’t one of those affected.
What concerned him was a potential hack attack across various platforms: grid, Internet, water supply, water treatment, and communications. My argument was that a major hack like that is a one shot deal. Our computer people would soon be able to patch up most of the problems once they came to light.
He pointed out that even a two week disruption for most people would be a major catastrophe. My error was in thinking how a total systems collapse would affect me, not in how it would affect others. Two weeks or two months without those systems wouldn’t be that big a deal for me. Between my solar electric system, good water supply, septic system and food storage our household wouldn’t suffer.
It’s easy to forget that most people have little to no backup for these things. There are people that don’t even do their own cooking, never mind have food storage. If they do have food they have no way to cook it with the systems down. Water could be a major issue for multitudes. It could get ugly relatively fast.
So I have to concede to my friend’s argument. A major hacking attack is something to be concerned about. Fortunately, your preps for everything from winter storms to hurricanes will get you through. You do have preps? Right?
-Sixbears
6 Bears, while you and I have backups to endure major Nor'easters and such.
ReplyDeleteThe bulk of folks living within easy driving range of my place DO NOT.
Oh, most of them have extra fuel, some stored water, some extra food and do survive our Nor'easters. The rest of the beg their friends for help. Yep, as a food bank worker I see that often.
But a major grid attack cascading through the systems is a longer-term problem. Not a three day problem but an ongoing disaster.
What's your thoughts about having long term Beggers trying to survive on your backups?
I think my neighbors are fewer and better prepared than most. I've seen no begging for help, even during extended power outages. Lots of independent old cusses around me.
DeleteI'm not too worried about my bicycle ranged neighbors. Most of us are pretty good about helping each other with snow plowing, car jumps and such.
DeleteI was referring to those more "Citified" townies that happen to have cars and not so prepared for anything past a critical need for frozen pizza.
I suspect your not more than 100 miles from a decent sized town, even a small city with a hospital. Short range with a automobile.
But then again, I work in a Food Bank so I see and hear about such things weekly.
I hope we don't have to find out the hard way if the "Golden Horde" will be an issue.
DeleteUrban areas, what some call cities ... they are most dependent on things working every day.
ReplyDeleteAs you get further from the core the Independence is higher.
Generally though weather has the upper hand and wide area damage is unusual.
So a system hack might cause the lights to go out for a while but storms have outdone that by taking out the poles and wires.
Eck!
The thing about cyberwar is that I'm sure we have our hackers ready to go too. Any attacker will also absorb damage.
DeleteI've been impressed with how well the lines crew did this past winter. Freezing rain and wet heavy snow took down a lot of trees and they took down a lot of lines. Our longest outages were Internet and my cell phone hotspot picked up 90% of the load.
A small comfort that the other nation is getting cybered also. People's electricity-banking-credit-Gas station and grocery store ability to SELL stuff and Re-order stuff is gone.
DeleteThose factors seem more important to this old medic than "Cyber-revenge" against the "evil doers".
You're likely not to hear much about the "revenge" as the SCANA (or an anacronym close to this) computer circuits that control all of our power distribution is fried. As they are expensive and "Never fail" we don't keep a lot of replacements. They PREVENT Transformers and such from overloading and bursting into flames and such. Oh, the replacements are made in China.
Cell towers will also be destroyed.
We have AWESOME line crews, but they cannot create replacement SCANA, nor find manual replacements for them. Nor can they salvage fried Transformers.
A true cyber hack is destructive, data LOST, cloud backups fried, physical systems destroyed, like electronic locking systems on commercial buildings and such.
It's a total war attack. Not a bad storm and they line crews will soon have everything back up.
So what's your thoughts about half tank of fuel "Visitors" who are not well prepared?
I bet the attack would have uneven effects. Some systems have robust protections -others, not so much. Replacement parts are a big issue.
DeleteI must admit I am conflicted about "visitors." No doubt the devil is in the details. The first batch of visitors will be family and we are prepared for them. They will get hot meals and their own firearm.
Most big city people who come to NH don't know there's anything north of North Conway.