EMP | Electrical Grids | A Thought Experiment

I had a discussion today with my brother that sparked my mind on the whole issue of EMP and probably why the government is so fired up about it lately as a threat to the US infrastructure. It occurred to me as I was speaking about the problem, that indeed there is a real and credible threat to the US grid “if” there are coordinated attacks on strategic sites with EMP as well as traditional explosive devices. Of course, this also could actually include kinetic attacks as well as electronic attacks a la the likes of something like the Stuxnet worm. I however, and just going on the contention that well placed attacks on the grid with explosives as well as EMP devices made for approximately $400.00, could in fact cause a cascade effect on the grid that could bring it down. Just how hard it would take it down I am not sure. The one thing I suspect though, is that this very scenario might be the catalyst for all the hullabaloo and reports that the senate had worked on this last year.

You see, at one time the everyone pretty much thought that the only EMP attack would be a high altitude detonation of a nuclear weapon. It seems the technologies have changed now and it is possible to build something like you can see below. That device was made and or located  by the military as well as the second image the device is known as a “Flux Compression Generator” The actual concussive device is not shown, what you are seeing is the focusing device for the actual EMP.

 

 

The above version is a simulated device used for IED training

 

 

The next step in the experiment is to determine the map of the grid and as you can see from the first picture in this post and the one right above, you can easily get the map to the grid online with a little help from Google. The image directly above shows the power generation plants and as you can surmise, the larger the red circle, the bigger the plant and the service area that it covers. By using this map (the map is interactive online too yay security!) and the one at the top of the page, you can see the importance of each site strategically as well as where the main power lines go to power the country.

One could then create the devices that could conceivably fit in a van and park them close to the facilities or even on the premises if you engineer your way in. Just drive up, park, and trigger.

Would it work? Well, given the right amount of power of explosives and if you likely also use other attacks that destroy the large transformers that we buy from the Chinese and take 2 years to build, then yes, you can take down those sites. Sites that will likely be down for quite a while as we do not have these transformers on hand. We would have to order them from the Chinese and, well, you know how it goes. Mind you, as the reports that the Senate has had created show, these systems are not shielded for any kind of EM burst and as far as infrastructure goes, the grid and the power stations are still a soft target as far as I hear from sources who perform red team testing on them.

 

 

Next, we have the areas of attack. According to a paper put out in 2008 “Cascade-based attack vulnerability on the US power grid” a couple of Chinese researchers have postulated that a series of attacks on the “networks” of the power grid could cause a cascade effect and in fact “may” have been the scenario for the 14 August 2003 blackout that occurred in the US. It is my contention that a similar attack can be carried out by the use of the EMP/explosives scenario and the fallout cascade from power demand as well as feedback that could ensue. Add to this that the initiating attack potentially taking out vulnerable systems like the large transformers, then you have a long lasting effect to the attack on top of the cascading out of effects to the power lines and sub stations.

All of this however, would only be the start of problems for us.

 

Once you take out the power, you can see from the image above, that the interconnected nature of our energy cycle and use causes even further issues. If those systems are down for a long period of time, we will see anarchy grow from fear and human nature as people feel threatened and frustrated from lack of energy. Energy that the country increasingly needs to power everything from their cell phones, to their heat, light, and general lives. If all of this were to fail, then the people would I assume, begin to freak out. It would likely start to look like “Mad Max” out there. I could be wrong… But.. Ya know, human nature…

Add to this the events surrounding the Stuxnet malware and its capabilities to manipulate SCADA systems and the vulnerabilities that have been brought to light, and you have another threat vector to add to the pot. This would be more nation state it would seem in order of magnitude, but, entirely possible with a concerted effort on the part of any entity with the will and the funds to create and implement the worm. Imagine that in a kinetic attack with the EMP and the possible use of a worm like stuxnet, it would be complex, but it would magnify the damage by scales if it worked. Systems not only down from physical damage, but also those interconnected systems not in the blast area could also be taken down in a timed manner by those who controlled such code.

I really hope that I am wrong but, this scenario seems logical. The technology is not all that hard to carry out for a trained scientist, and even if the event did not knock out all of the nodes that would be needed to take out large areas within the country, it would be enough to cause mass panic and damage. So, in the end, I am just saying that EMP seems to be much more viable an attack than one might think and when one asks themselves why the government was so keen this last year on EMP, you might just look as far as this type of scenario for the answer.

CoB

Top Secret America: The Fifth Column, Uncontrolled and Unaccounted For

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

The investigation’s other findings include:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – about 17 million square feet of space.

From Secret America in the Washington Post

PBS Frontline report coming this fall

When this article came out there seemed to be just a collective murmur as a response by the masses. I figured that either people just didn’t care, didn’t get it, or were just too stunned to comment about it. Upon reading up some more and seeing the Frontline piece, I have decided that most people just can’t grasp the sheer import of this report. What this all says to me is that the government has no idea of just who is doing what and how much money is being spent. What’s more, the people certainly have no idea (the people as in the voting public) whats really going on either.

Another factor here I think is that many people just have too much faith in the government and in the corporations. When you really look at it though, once you have worked in the sausage factory and have seen how its made, you really never want to eat sausage again. Its like that with working for the government and or corporations really. Having spent all these years in the information security business working for fortune 500 companies as well as the government, I can say I do not want to “Eat the sausage” Of course perhaps the better thing to say is that I do not trust the government nor corporations because they both are comprised of inept people and red tape.

By far though, the concerns that I have are something a bit more ominous in nature. I fear that these machinations will only lead to greater abuses of power by not only the government but also the corporate entities that they have tasked with performing all this secret work. It used to be that there was government oversight on the intelligence community, but you knew that there was some off books things happening. Now, we have post Iraq and still ongoing in Afghanistan, a contractor proxy war that now includes a civilian intelligence element. An element that now seems to be even more “civilian” because it is being operated by corporations and not wings of the government. It gives a new meaning to “black ops”

Another interesting turn in this “secretification” to steal a Bush-ism is the whole issue of just how far the pendulum has swung from the nations not caring so much about HUMINT and intelligence to suddenly being even more fervent about it it seems than they were during the cold war years. I might also hazard a statement to say that since 9/11 it has generally felt more and more like the 50’s again where paranoia is concerned about the “enemy threat to the homeland”

Are we in danger? Yes. Do we need to have to go back to the 50’s mentality of us and them with a McCarthy-esque twist? No.

Of course all or most of this is aimed at Jihadi terrorists and not a governmental body like the Soviet bloc and this is where the disconnect seems to be the largest for me. It’s rather ironic actually that all this effort is being predicated on fighting a group of people who are not generally known for being easily infiltrated nor as easy to get a grasp on as the Sov’s were. People just knee jerked after 9/11 and really, they have only created even more bureaucracy in which the real INTEL will get lost and another attack likely happen because of it.

Welcome to Washington’s dementia…

Weapons Of Mass Disruption: Cyberpocalypse-a-palooza

To avoid a digital doomsday, Clarke and co-author Robert Knake argue that America needs to treat cyberattack capabilities as nothing less than weapons of mass destruction that can “skip over the battlefield” to target civilian life. That sort of threat, like nuclear weapons, calls for a multi-tiered response: treaties, transparency, beefed-up defenses and a focused concern on rogue states.

Cyberwar treaties face a problem that traditional ones don’t. An enemy could easily hide the source of attacks by routing them through hijacked computers in another country or attributing them to independent criminals.

But Clarke contends that a government could be held accountable for helping to track down any cyberattack originating within its borders, just as the Taliban was held responsible for harboring Osama bin Laden. Although attribution on the Internet isn’t as simple as in traditional warfare, cyberattacks can be traced. Clarke says forensic hackers can follow the trail of bits when they’re given time and leave to breach enemy computers.

“The NSA can do that. And the NSA tells me that attribution isn’t actually a problem,” he says bluntly.

Full article HERE

Dick, Dick, Dick, I am with you in so many ways.. BUT, when you start talking about DPI of the WHOLE INTERNET, then you lose me pal.

Sorry *shrug*

I personally don’t want the whole of the internet being siphoned even MORE than it already is by DPI at every providers NOC with a NARUS STA6400 system installed.

Nope, no thank you.

Now, on the other things likes accountability for nations with server on their soil I am with you. If a server is public/private and is on your soil, there should be “some” responsibility there. At least there should be enough to enforce security practices be carried out to prevent it from becoming the botnet slave in the first place no? Of course Obama wussed out on that one here didn’t he? No rules will be created to enforce that type of accountability here in the private sector.. No sir! It would put an undue strain on the private sector!

*tap tap* Uhh sir, most of the infrastructure is in “private” hands… Umm without making them do some due diligence we are fucked mmmkay?

Yeah…

Meanwhile, lets talk to the italicized and BOLD text. Back in the days of yore, when pirates roamed the seas, there was a thing called a “Letter of Marque” basically, government would give a pirate hunter the letter and say “go git em” This is what we need today I think. Of course this is touchy, but, this is pretty much what Dick is alluding to. He says that he “knows” that were the NSA given a letter of marque, they could not only penetrate the systems involved, but also run the forensics to attribute where the perp really is.

“Whoa” to quote Neo…

Yes, it’s quite true. Not only the NSA could do this though. Go to the BlackHat or Defcon and you would have a plethora of people to choose from really. So this is no mysterious mojo here. Its just that this type of action could cause much more ire than the original attack maybe and lead us into that physical war with the nukes. Who knows.

I guess though, that what has been seen as the model for the future “internet” with cyber-geographic demarcations might just be the real future state we need. At least that is what Dick’s advocating here and I can sorta see that as a way to handle certain problems. If we break up cyberspace so to speak, into regions (like the whole .XXX debacle) then we can have set rules of governance. At present the internet is just a giant wild west stage complete with digital tumbleweeds and an old whore house.

*pictures the dual swinging doors and spurs jangling*

The one thing that rings true though, is that there needs to be some accountability.. Just what form that will take is anyone’s guess. For now though, we will continue on with the lame government jabbering and frothing with the lapdog that is the so called “press” lapping it all up and parroting it back to the masses.

Smoke em if ya got em…

CoB

PLA officer urges challenging U.S. dominance

(Reuters) – China should build the world’s strongest military and move swiftly to topple the United States as the global “champion,” a senior Chinese PLA officer says in a new book reflecting swelling nationalist ambitions.

China

The call for China to abandon modesty about its global goals and “sprint to become world number one” comes from a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel, Liu Mingfu, who warns that his nation’s ascent will alarm Washington, risking war despite Beijing’s hopes for a “peaceful rise.”

“China’s big goal in the 21st century is to become world number one, the top power,” Liu writes in his newly published Chinese-language book, “The China Dream.”

“If China in the 21st century cannot become world number one, cannot become the top power, then inevitably it will become a straggler that is cast aside,” writes Liu, a professor at the elite National Defense University, which trains rising officers.

Full article HERE

Why do I feel like I have suddenly found myself in the plot of “The Bear and the Dragon” by Tom Clancy? Except instead of oil and gold deposits in Siberia we are waging battle for the gold of IP in the digital void?

This is a very important piece to pay attention to though. This Colonel really does have a contingent of the populace (the younger set) who would love nothing more than to just let the “Dragon” out of the cage to wreak havoc on us. The PLA has become strong and I am sure that some of the hard liners in power think that the “Thousand Grains of sand” approach has about run out of sand.

Look at it this way:

• Our economy is in the worst place its been since the great depression
• Our government is completely ossified and unable to do anything
• Our economic engine has been stalled out and outsourced
• Our schools are turning out less and less qualified technical people
• We are a nation divided
• Our debt is pretty much wholly owned by China
• We are in a three front war with terrorism
• Our forces are overstressed and dispersed
• We have been terrible at securing our digital infrastructure

I could go on, but this was likely ponderous enough for you all. Look, what I am saying is this guy’s right. We are easy pickins really at this moment in time. We are down on the ground and they are the cobra kai.. And we ain’t no “Daniel San” to mix movie cultural references.

Either way I look at it I see some real problems. I know I know, you are thinking that they (China) need us as a trading partner. Yes, yes they do. However, I do not think that they need us “that much” that they would not consider at the very least pulling the plug on us.

There is a growing contingent of ultra national followers in China and they want to be “THE” superpower… And I think that they see their chance now. What would it take to trip the switch?

A blended Cyberwar attack with physical and economic contingent.

Like they say “May you live in interesting times”

Indeed.

Speaking Truth To Stupid

“If the nation went to war today, in a cyberwar, we would lose,” Mike McConnell told a U.S. Senate committee. “We’re the most vulnerable. We’re the most connected. We have the most to lose.”

McConnell, director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009, predicted that the U.S. government would eventually get heavily involved in protecting cybersecurity and in regulating private approaches to cybersecurity. Testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, McConnell also predicted that the U.S. would make little improvements in its cybersecurity before a “catastrophic” attack will cause the government to get involved.

“We will not mitigate this risk,” said McConnell, now executive vice president for the national security business at Booz Allen Hamilton. “We will talk about it, we will wave our hands, we’ll have a bill, but we will not mitigate this risk.”

Full story HERE

Exactly what I have been saying!! McConnell and I seem to be on the same wavelength here. Of course it was rather painfully obvious to anyone watching that CNN pos, but, being in the business I know from experience.

I will say it again: We will not really take this seriously until we get hit hard. Lets just hope we come through that attack ok and learn from it.

CoB

60 Minutes: Sabotaging The System

Well I guess 60 Minutes made the INFOSEC news wires burn today as they reported on something I have been saying for some time now. Who’da thunk it, but our infrastructure is vulnerable, we are constantly under attack, and generally, the US is not at all prepared for an attack that could bring down the power.

Really? NO WAY!

See folks, I am not “completely” paranoid! Take it from the FBI guy, as well as McConnel who pretty much gave up the jewels in their interviews. See, what they had to say was to be unsaid by folks I know who have been sworn to secrecy. Guess perhaps all the “detail” given was done so for a reason? Perhaps to get someone’s ass in gear to appoint a Tsar?

Who knows.

All I know is that I sat there watching this and thinking;

“Who DIDN’T know this?”

I mean really, the attacks on Rio’s infrastructure were just a prelude as you might surmise from the report. Probing has been going on for some time and the Rio systems were a soft target. Our systems are just as porous and have been infiltrated for some time. I mean what do you expect when chuckleheads start connecting SCADA to internet connected networks huh?

This report also made me think about my post in August about the EMP threat that the government seems to suddenly taken a real interest in this last year. All this time they have known about the vulnerabilities and have done nothing to remediate them. Add to this, as the veiled reporting intimated in last nights piece, that much of the hardware that runs and regulates our grid is made in China! It’s not off the shelf kind of stuff and were we to have an epic cascade and failure, it would be some time before we could get new systems from China. Time that could amount to a year at the least.

So the big question is what are we doing here? The “we” being our government. As you could see from the report, the senate told the power companies to start remediations and they outright lied to congress about their remediations. Remediations that NEVER happened.

Trust us, we’re your friendly power company!

Right.

Oh well, I guess its time for you all out there to start thinking about getting your supplies together. As McConnell said it:

“I’d do it during the winter, I’d hit the northeast”

Say, it’s almost winter…. Oh my… And we don’t have a John McClaine to save us.

60 Minutes: Sabotaging The System

EDIT: According to Wired a certain sources are saying that it was not a hacker or hackers that caused the outtage…

SAO PAULO, Brazil — A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year

Wired Article

Hmmm well, all I have to say is “gee, really.. I am sure that the government of Rio would love to admit they had a power DoS by hackers” But.. it’s plausible… Kinda like a downed tree limb causing the whole of  NYC being dark…

EMP/HERF/HEMP: What.. Me Worry?

Recently I have been hearing more and more in the news how the senate and house have been having hearings on EMP threats to this nation. As I began to hear more of this, I inevitable came to the question of “Why now?” I mean, this has always been a threat as far as I am concerned. Of course now its even more pressing an issue as we are so “interconnected” today with the internet and communications infrastructure in general… But, just what was it that was making them get all hot for this now I wondered. Had they heard something from some intelligence body and were all freaked out?

I had thought on this a while and really had kinda just forgotten about it until this last Friday when I was headed home from work and listening to NPR’s Science Friday show. As if on qeue, I turned on the radio and there was Congressman Roscoe Bartlett railing on the dangers that we face should a terrorist or a nation state decide to use an EMP/HEMP device on the US’ infrastructure.

I sat in the car at the end of my trip still listening to the end of his interview, when it was over I knew I had to really take a deeper look into why these people had suddenly had a fire lit under their collective do nothing asses. Come to find out that perhaps that fire was lit 9.12.01 and has been steadily becoming a blaze as the eggheads began to show the congress-critters just how fucked we would be if someone used an HEMP on us.. Only now, something had changed in their collectively lazy minds.. We had been attacked on our own soil and SHIT WE’RE FREAKED OUT!

So, today I sat down and Googled the dhs.gov, .gov, .mil, and other domain spaces with key words of EMP/HEMP/HERF etc. What I found is a plethora of documents that began to spring up around 2003/2004 concerning the threatcon of a terrorist or nation state EMP attack… Funny thing too.. Gee, 2003, that was the year of the great blackout of the northeast.

Ya know.. the one that “trees” allegedly caused? Yeah…

The primary document that I came up with that was the most recent is: The Report of the Commission to Assess theThreat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack which, in 208 pages covers all of the problems this nation (and I assume other places) has regarding our infrastructure where an attack of this type is concerned. Suffice to say, that this document has some rather dire things to say. Including the following passage on the magnatude of weapon that could cause a major failure of our infrastructure;

The magnitude of an EMP event varies with the type, design and yield of the weapon,
as well as its placement. The Commission has concluded that even a relatively modest-to small yield weapon of particular characteristics, using design and fabrication informationalready disseminated through licit and illicit means, can produce a potentially devastating E1 field strength over very large geographical regions. This followed by E2 impacts, and in some cases serious E3 impacts operating on electrical components left relatively unprotected by E1, can be extremely damaging. (E3 requires a greater yield to produce major effects.) Indeed, the Commission determined that such weapon devices not only
could be readily built and delivered, but also the specifics of these devices have been
illicitly trafficked for the past quarter-century. The field strengths of such weapons may
be much higher than those used by the Commission for testing threshold failure levels of
electrical system components and subsystems.

Laymans terms, even a small device placed in the right place or even an HEMP (High Altitude) of moderate size, would likely bring this nations infrastructure to a grinding halt and it would stay down for some time. You see, our infrastructure is very much dependent on itself to feed itself. If the power goes out, then there is no power after the reserves run out to keep the other systems running. In fact, even the power generation, and its getting to you requires the very power that is generated to get it TO you and regulate it so that things don’t implode in on themselves! In essence, the grid goes down, then everything goes too soon afterward. No cell phones, no emergency services because you cant call them because the phones and cell phones don’t work.. because there’s no power… You see where I am going. The system, and by system, I mean the utilities infrastructure, is not only antiquated in many ways and stretched, but also, that which is not antiquated, is EXCEEDINGLY susceptible to this and other E1-E3 attacks. How do we know? Because the commission actually set up tests as best they could, and they could crash systems with low end EMP devices, thats how.

Yet, the commission also admits the following thing in this passage;

Additionally, analyses available from foreign sources suggest that amplitudes and frequency
content of EMP fields from bomb blasts calculated by U.S. analysts may be too
low. While this matter is a highly technical issue that awaits further investigation by U.S.
scientific experts, it raises the specter of increased uncertainty about the adequacy ofcurrent U.S. EMP mitigation approaches.

Even our testing and our data is suspect and we may even be in a worse state of affairs than we think from bad data!

Yay!

So lets break it down shall we? What’s vulnerable and just how much?

The Power Grid:

Fear not only the terrorist though my friends.. Did you know that nature too has actually D0S’d our power grid in the past? Yep, its true.. From lightning to the more fearsome EMP bursts from the sun. We live in a world where our very society hinges on the power being available to keep our lights on, our food cold, and our MTV on the tube and it could all be taken out by an EMP burst from the sun. Now that’s one hell of an EMP.

A key issue for the Commission in assessing the impact of such a disruption to the
Nation’s electrical system was not only the unprecedented widespread nature of the outage
(e.g., the cascading effects from even one or two relatively small weapons exploded
in optimum location in space at present would almost certainly shut down an entire interconnected
electrical power system, perhaps affecting as much as 70 percent or possibly
more of the United States, all in an instant) but more significantly widespread damage
may well adversely impact the time to recover and thus have a potentially catastrophic
impact.

High-value assets (assets that are critical to the production and delivery of large volumes
of electrical power and those critical for service to key loads) in the system are vulnerable
to EMP through the loss of protection equipment due to E1 and even if E3 levels
were not large enough to cause damage. The largest and most critical of these are
transformers. Transformers are the critical link (1) between generation and transmission,
(2) within the transmission network, (3) between the transmission and distribution
systems, and (4) from the distribution to the load.

Wait though, it gets better… Did I mention that much of the equipment, like transformers, actually is not something we can get “COTS” ? Did you know that it would take a year or more in some instances to get a new one? Now imagine that more than one.. More than three… Have been taken out permanently by an E1-E3 event?

The transformers that handle electrical power within the transmission system and its
interfaces with the generation and distribution systems are large, expensive, and to a considerable
extent, custom built. The transmission system is far less standardized than the
power plants are, which themselves are somewhat unique from one to another. All production
for these large transformers used in the United States is currently offshore.

Delivery time for these items under benign circumstances is typically one to two years.
There are about 2,000 such transformers rated at or above 345 kV in the United States
with about 1 percent per year being replaced due to failure or by the addition of new
ones. Worldwide production capacity is less than 100 units per year and serves a world
market, one that is growing at a rapid rate in such countries as China and India. Delivery
of a new large transformer ordered today is nearly 3 years, including both manufacturing
and transportation. An event damaging several of these transformers at once means it
may extend the delivery times to well beyond current time frames as production is taxed.
The resulting impact on timing for restoration can be devastating. Lack of high voltage
equipment manufacturing capacity represents a glaring weakness in our survival and
recovery to the extent these transformers are vulnerable

There you have it. The grid, the very SAME grid that the government now wants to make more “computerized” is insanely vulnerable to this type of attack. Come to find out too, that its actually pretty much vulnerable to many other types of attacks or accidents too. It’s just that an EMP would be large scale and or, would have a feedback loop associated with it that would systemically kill great swaths of the grid. Much like what we saw in 2003, August when the *cough* trees, caused the northeast to go down.

Oh, and by the way, think on this too. A cyber attack on these same systems, if carried out properly, could have the same effect. If you kill or futz with the SCADA you can kill the system and have that same feedback loop occur. So, if you are thinking well, whew! I really don’t foresee a nuke detonation at altitude you might want to consider our current security posture too and feel your sphincter tighten a bit. All it would take is a concerted effort and something along the lines of a BOTnet and BOOM, we could have deep power outages that could take protracted times to repair.

So where does that leave us? If the power is out, then nothing can really run unless you have backup power. However, backup power requires that you get more fuel, unless you have a Mr. Fusion handy, then you could just dump your compost into it. Nope, you will need a truck to bring you oil or diesel.. Of course you will need to call them.. But your cell phone is fried, and so are the towers, and the towers that may have escaped the full blast? They are overloaded just like the day of 9/11. You are not getting through.

So lets break it down by service.

TELCO/COMMS:

• Cell phones and towers are highly susceptible
• Landlines are not so much, but the switching stations that are more modern and thus will be inoperable

GAS/OIL:

• Just one word SCADA Its been tested and is highly vulnerable to EMP even to the point of having problems with radar causing systems to fail
• Gas and oil production would be at a standstill or worse, the plants could actually catch fire from pressure etc

RAIL:

• Switching systems on rail have gone to the computer and as we have seen recently, can get hosed up and cause large scale accidents
• The systems are basically SCADA/DC systems that are vulnerable to this type of attack
• Most of these systems reside in small metal boxes near the rail.. Open to attack

SHIPS/TRUCKS/PLANES/NAVIGATION SYSTEMS:

• GPS and other NAV systems on ships/trucks etc today are all micro circuit based and have proven to be vulnerable to attack by E1-E3 events
• Most cars and trucks now have microchip systems within them that regulate the operation of the car. No chip, no run.. so the car becomes a large paperweight
• Motorcycles not so much, unless you have a goldwing or something along those lines
• Air travel will be down. Not only the planes systems will be fried but also the towers will be without power and their computer aided radar will be offline

FINANCIAL:

• The financial system is a bit more resiliant to the power loss potential of an attack. However, their computer systems are still not shielded for an EMP event and thus, even redundant systems would be fried.. and without power after the generators ran out of diesel

What does this tell you all? It tells you that even though we have known about this type of attack since, oh, 1962, we have done nothing to really shield any of our systems that we have put in place. No Faraday cages, no shielding on the circuits, nada. It would have been too costly and no one could concieve of such an attack on us!

Right…

I vote more on the saving money thing and being generally lazy, but, I am jaded.

So where do we go from here?

The commission has made recommendations and even put in the monetary figures that would be necessary to take care of the issues. Will they happen? Will they happen especially since we are going to have a “smart grid” now that is going to likely be just as, if not MORE vulnerable to attacks both EMP and cyber?

My answer.. nope.

Why? Because inevitably people will say that the congress-critters are over reacting and that this attack is not likely to happen. If the Qaeda boys get their hands on a nuke, they aren’t going to get this kind of nuke! No! They are going to get a suitcase nuke and blow the fuck out of some poor city like Boston!

Whats that? The Russian navy just had TWO subs that avoided our SOSUS nets off the East Coast last week? Meh, Pooty Poot said not to worry! They were just here to listen to our “rock and roll” before heading down to Cuba for a good time! It’s not like they could carry a small yield ICBM style nuke that would make a damn fine HEMP! C’mon!! Don’t be crazy!

Never mind the idea that the Chinese have their hands on technology for E1-E3 devices that need not be high altitude. Did you know for instance that those BIG ASS transformers that take a YEAR to get are pretty much made only by them? Yeah, uh, the Chinese make our transformers that are the linchpin to our grid.. Ya know, the ones that are really really vulnerable?

Lets postulate here a bit too.. We’ve been worried about the Chinese market in fake chip sets getting into our military hardware.. Gee, how about them being in our big ass transformers? Hell of an exploit were they to hide chips or features in those transformers..

Click.. ZZZZZ POP! There goes the grid, and there goes our dominance in the world. Sure, you can say the Chinese would be only shooting themselves in the head being our biggest lender and trading partner… But, if you were them and you really didn’t care because you would WIN the war simply, wouldn’t you do the same thing?

So back to where do we go from here… For me I think its going to be looking into a faraday cage for the basement.. More power generation tools like solar etc for the house, and stocking up on non perishables. That’s about all one can do really. You see, your government is too big and too ossified to really effectively remedy the situation. While they argue with each other over who’s sleeping with who’s wife and what it means to be a “Real American” the enemies are collecting the armaments necessary to take us down.. At least for a while.

All YOU can do is prepare and take care of yourself and yours.

Lets hope this doesn’t happen.. But if it does.. Be ready.

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