Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Editor’s Note: In May 2011, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Count as Acts of War.” The article began, “The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.”
Veteran journalist, Ted Koppel, is getting the word out to the American public that the U.S. does not have a plan for a cyberattack against the power grid.
In his latest book “Lights Out,” Koppel writes on what would happen if another country took out the nation’s power grid via hacking, and how it would be difficult for unprepared American residents to survive.
“It’s frightening,” Koppel told CBS News. “I mean, it is frightening enough that my wife and I decided we were going to buy enough freeze-dried food for all of our kids and their kids.”
Koppel went on to say that the former Chief Scientists of the NSA told him that Russia and China were already in the power grid. And soon, Iran and terrorist groups like ISIS may be able to hack their way into the power grid’s system that is connected to the Internet.
“I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened yet,” cyber security consultant Larry Pesce told CBS. “It’s definitely not for lack of capability on various parts, be it us or the enemy. I think it comes down to timing. I think we need to make the right people mad at the right time.”
According to Koppel, he has talked with every former secretary of Homeland Security and they all said the same thing: there is no plan for a cyberattack against the power grid. However, Homeland Security replied to CBS saying that there is a plan, but they did not give details.
A former Defense Department official, Paul Stockton, told CBS that Koppel is wrong. While there is a plan in place, Stockton did admit that there could be improvement in security measures both through the government and the power companies.
“The government is building plans very, very quickly now to help manage the consequences of an attack on the grid,” Stockton said.
Stockton did add that Koppel was smart for stocking up on food and water for him and his family.
Average citizens need to be able to take care of their own families and their own neighborhoods and their own communities, and not assume that Uncle Sam is somehow going to magically bring in the cavalry and rescue them,” he said.
I was a Boiler & Machinery senior underwriter for Factory Mutual System insurance group in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. We studied/evaluated corporate Fortune 100/500 company exposures to mechanical/electrical/physical loss to property and the resulting potential business interruption loss of both profit and fixed expanses. For multi million dollar exposures. Major corporations in manufacturing: electrical utilities, mining, steel, pharmaceutical, chemical, pulp & paper/lumber, aluminum, ……….. Alcan, Merck, International Paper, Alcoa, Kaiser Steel/Aluminum, ,,,,, over half of all Fortune 100/500 companies……
As part of evaluation, I/we would review/study the electrical utility exposure …….. we would study/evaluate the electrical grid system to determine if there was available alternative routing of electricity ………… through other sub-stations, etc. We were insuring huge sums of money/exposure and wanted to know what could be done to minimize/alleviate a major electrical outage.
So we went to US Government site and obtained FREE, the entire US ELECTRICAL GRID SYSTEM ON SCHEMATICS: ……… FOR THE ENTIRE US GRID SYSTEM. All provided in booklets/schematics/grid maps for each section of the US Electrical Grid.
…… if I was a terrorist, I could identify which sub-stations to disable …………. a high powered armor piercing bullet shot into a large electrical transformer bank would take out a key sub-station in a few minutes, and you’d never find me/us.. Multiple shooters could easily take out Greater Boston in a synchronized attack quite easily ……… and large transformers are not easily replaced nor repaired. ……….. but easy to disable/distroy.
WE had it all and sometimes thought how stupid was it to have this detailed information available and FREE, with no questions asked!
I’m retired now and last year destroyed the electrical grid maps/data.
If Ted Koppel wants to discuss further, contact me.
Ted Koppel is 100% correct that the USA is totally exposed to terrorists taking down our electrical grid system.
Regards
Roger Sweeney
I appreciate this informative article. The message to prepare is coming from all directions.