An incident in California demonstrates just how vulnerable much of our critical infrastructure really is.
An internet outage that caused massive delays, some hours long, for flights at the Sacramento International Airport (SMF) started after AT&T wires were intentionally cut, officials said.
. . .
"It looks like someone who knew what they were doing," [Sergeant] Gandhi said. "So this wasn't just a couple of teenagers ... ripping some wires out as a prank. [It] looks very deliberate ... like they knew what they were doing."
There's more at the link.
I hate to think what proportion of our critical infrastructure (airports, sewage and water plants, power stations, dams, factories, refineries, rail interchanges, etc.) are dependent on Internet connections for part or all of their operations. I suspect it's most of them. Those Internet connections mostly run over cables, or via satellite. Given how easy it is to take out a major fiber-optic cable (dig down to it, set off explosives, and Bob's your uncle) or use a local EMP weapon (as already possessed by many hostile powers and nations) to interrupt satellite communications in a given area, and all those critical points are suddenly offline. How long will it take to reconnect them all? Will it even be possible, if it can't be done in a hurry? Many of them can't take too much of an interruption before they have to shut down their plant, and once that's done it can take a heck of a lot of maintenance and preparation before machines can be turned on again. (Just as one example, if you shut down a crucible in a metal plant, the metal still inside it will solidify. Getting that back to a liquid, and decanting it, can take weeks or months - if it's possible at all. Another example: re-energizing an electrical grid. That takes a lot of power just to restart everything, but if generating plants have all been shut down, where's it to come from? What about transformers that blow during the process? Are spares on hand?)
Emergencies aren't just caused by storms or earthquakes. Determined enemies can create emergencies that take weeks, if not months (and perhaps years) to sort out. Hence, emergency preparations need to take such elements into account. If you live near or are dependent on (e.g. for employment) any of those critical infrastructure elements, your emergency preparations should take that reality into account. Being thrown out of work due to your employer having to shut down operations is just as much of an emergency, in its own way, as having water or power cut off to your house.
Also, consider how much of our daily lives now depend on the Internet. Home security systems, banking, shopping, entertainment . . . if we lose the Internet, how will we do all those things? Have you checked where the nearest physical branch of your bank is, and its hours of operation, and how to get there? It might surprise you to see how difficult it will be to conduct your financial affairs if you have to go there in person, rather than tap at your keyboard. (That's one reason why keeping a reasonable stash of cash at home, just in case, is anything but overkill. It may be essential.)
Peter
You should check this older documentary out (https://www.netwars-project.com/) - it will give you another perspective on how vulnerable the critical infrastructure really is!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the need to keep cash on hand and even encourage my kids to always carry at least $20 cash on them just in case they encounter a store where the card reader is down. However, in the event of a grid down situation, I don't think we will find too many stores staying open on a cash basis due to their reliance on bar code scanners for pricing information and the cash registers to tell them the correct change.
ReplyDeleteYep, 'testing'...
ReplyDeleteWinner winner chicken dinner.
DeleteIts obvious to anyone with 2 brain cells SOMEBODY is setting up for a big event stateside.
The grid and the internet will be brought down. By whom and when are the unknown variables, but I gotta hunch....
People are far TOO DEPENDENT on the internet and modern day technology PERIOD!!! It has and will continue to bite in the ass!
ReplyDeleteAmerica was built, and expanded, as a high trust society.
ReplyDeleteThere is no feasible way to harden all electrical and communication infrastructure. And beyond a few repairs, there is neither supplies nor personnel to do more than that.
My semi rural electric coop president wrote a his monthly article in their magazine a few months ago. In it he said, not hinted, not talked around it, he said that we can expect to see, at a minimum, rolling blackouts due to generation shortages. He said it is not just our co-op, but all energy buyers.
If you do not have a way to generate a minimum amount of electricity in some way, life will be harder.
Remember how to write checks and lick stamps?
Recall the electrical shutdown in a large area of S Calif caused by an "unknown person" shooting up a power substation with a full auto AK caliber rifle, or the shutdown in N Carolina from a similar attack.
ReplyDeleteJohn in Indy
"America was built, and expanded, as a high trust society."
ReplyDelete^^^^
THIS
If you dug down to get the fiber/ com cables, you wouldn't need explosives.
ReplyDeleteThat same backhoe you dug with is well capable of breaking those cables.
I know from experience.
@KurtP: Depends if they're in a pipeline or encased in concrete.
ReplyDeleteMost likely a test run by Chinese infiltrators. When they get the signal from Beijing this sabotage will be repeated at dozens of locations nearly simultaneously resulting in mass chaos. Likely done as a prelude to actual kinetic warfare..
ReplyDeleteI suspect the electronic infiltration is already sufficient, but will be combined with human actions for a devastating blow. Harder to catch the crook over wires, people leave too much evidence behind. Look at the Moscow shooting? If only they'd paid the getaway driver to kill the shooters...
Delete@peter, if they are in concrete, it's not a lot of concrete (think stabilization of the pipes the fiber runs through, not armor)
ReplyDeleteI have spent the last two days watching my street get a ditch-witch cutting a channel, followed by fiber being places in the channel, followed by a few inches of concrete put down on top of it. That's more concrete than is usually in place.
backhoe fiber outages are not uncommon.
David Lang
Concrete -encased (min. 2" on all sides)continuous raceway passing through a building is considered to be outside of that building for the purposes of the National electric code.
ReplyDeleteIt's a minimum standard that wouldn't offer much physical protection. Probably this attack is a practice run as others have said. There's better weaknesses to exploit, but it's imprudent to assess the enemy as any less prepared for their war plans to get changed as battlefield circumstances demand than we are. And to have redundancies in place as we do. Planning is vital and workable plans are flexible. Adapt and make do. Every act of vandalism could be intelligence gathering, how do they react to this getting broken, etc. It's known that a large public act of terrorism can unify the attacked, but widely disseminated denial of service attacks must be publicly identified and explained to get anybody's attention. Like the basics of money, market security is poorly understood.
Just hope your preps gather dust unneeded. I have all the metals, food and water, weapons, Collins HF tube radio gear, and hope it never gets used, because nobody regardless of preparations will live as well as even the poor live today.
rickm