Special report: America's greatest threat is a hurricane-force cyberattack

[DonViejo]

Dave Lawler, Jonathan Swan2 hours ago

For the past month, Axios has been interviewing people trusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets. We wanted to know, in this time of acute geopolitical stress, which global threat worried them most, and which threats they thought weren’t getting the attention they deserved.

When we asked America’s foremost intelligence experts what keeps them up at night, one response came up over and over again: the risk of a crippling cyberattack.

The big picture: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said this week that the U.S. is in "crisis mode," comparing the danger of a massive attack to a Category 5 hurricane looming on the horizon. Intelligence chiefs from the last three administrations agree, and told Axios there is no graver threat to the United States.

A well-executed cyberattack could knock out the electrical grid and shut off power to a huge swath of the country, or compromise vital government or financial data and leave us unsure what is real.

more
https://www.axios.com/americas-greatest-threat-hurricane-force-cyberattack-67ff9c98-1cb8-4358-9d9e-e8c26836dec3.html

[empedocles]

1. traitortrump hoping for such an attack?

trump is getting more desperate by each rally, each tweet.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Cat1 or Cat5 ?

This reminds me of some reporter on MSNBC claiming that the prosecutors in the Manafort were 'tightening the noose, brick by brick."

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. That's right Kirstjen - "crisis mode" - so with this warning -

just what the hell are you doing about it....the general public is waiting to hear your plan...oh wait...is this like the plan for reuniting children with their parents??? - Should we call the ACLU??

[BSdetect]

4. Yes, I recall how the experts failed to deal with the hysteria re the Y2k farce.

If enemies can disrupt such key infrastructure we are going to be disrupted at some point.

[Vinca]

5. IMO, now is the time to build a 100% solar home.

[yallerdawg]

6. I hope the world doesn't imagine...

that the US can't unleash cyber-warfare at unimaginable levels. It's 'mutually assured destruction' again.

Stuxnet is just a known taste of what is possible.

And this reminds me of the old Y2K scare - the world is going to come to a crashing halt because of a computer glitch built into the system! We survived.

"The only thing we have to fear is whatever they tell us to be fearful of this week."

[Hortensis]

8. Cyber's far, far more targetable than nuclear weapons

and their aftermath, much less nuclear MAD.

Yaller, informed, sensible people were not worried about Y2K. We didn't know anyone who was.

People have genuine reason to admit the possibility of warfare-level cyber attacks, though, and to prepare to have to take care of themselves for whatever time period they decide on. Most limited attacks would not directly affect most people, fallout coming from disruptions of systems that did indirectly reach them. The global ransomware attack in 2017 indirectly cost me about 2 weeks income. I'd expect significantly worse at best.

On the plus side, a war that would allow people with food and water to stay home and sleep in our own beds seems a definite improvement over other forms. And we could also take nuclear winter of the list of problems we would need to deal with.

[Hortensis]

7. Put worry to good purpose by laying in water, food,

and medications. If even electricity to one region were taken down, for instance, the catastrophe would be far bigger than our nation's ability to meet it, and little to no aid would be coming to many for a long time. None would arrive at first.

In Puerto Rico, most of the people televised climbing over debris and wading through dirty water on the streets of San Juan were looking for food and water. Some still had shelter available, but lack of water put a lot of people in immediate danger.

Many people were able to remain safe in their own or other homes much longer, though, because they had supplies when the hurricane hit. A cyber "hurricane" could hinder our ability to stop fires, but except for that danger our homes would be intact and we need to be able to stay safe in them. In most of these scenarios our workplaces would be shut down, and civil authorities would have highways blocked to all but necessary traffic and other controls in place.

So stock a sustainable home, planning to be able to shelter in reasonable comfort at home for at least several weeks.

There's been some discussion about this on the Frugal and Energy Efficient Forum:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1128