Posted on 10/19/2011 6:40:27 AM PDT by Any Fate But Submission
One objective might be significant damage to a coal/oil fired plant that provides electricity to the Grid. How would they do that?
A simple example would be my electric tea pot at home. Every morning I fill the tea pot with water and turn it on. When the water comes to a boil, I turn it off and pour the water into a cup. My tea pot has a mechanical on-off switch but if I leave it on, the water boils out and the overheat safety switch automatically turns it off. If it was controlled by a computer a cyber attack could turn it on late at night and disable the safety switch such that the tea pot would destroy itself and maybe start a fire.
To get the control codes for key equipment they send a virus into the manufacturer who makes the equipment. They find out in which plants that particular equipment is installed and steal the codes to incorporate them into their attack. That is what the Israelis did to destroy centrifuges in Iran with the Stuxnet virus. This is what our enemies are doing right now, this very minute.
Back to our power plant. They now have codes to some of the operating systems/equipment of the power plant. One of the many things they could do is disable the pressure control systems and the safety “switches” as well as have the system show on the control panels that it is at a normal 3,000 psi when it is really way past 5,000 psi and explodes. By controlling the control system the operators of the plant would never know there was a problem until the explosion.
My tea pot can be replaced for $12 at Wal-Mart but replacement of a huge boiler might take 6 months or more. There would be no electricity from that plant until then.
Now, what if most, if not all, of the power plants in the USA were severely damaged simultaneously such that most of the USA was without electricity for months? Think about 6 months of life without water from the tap, heat, AC, lights, internet, computers, cell phones, 911, GPS, credit cards, ATM, refrigeration, stove/oven, gas stations (no cars, trucks, or trains), street lights, radio/tv, fire, police, and the stock market. Hospitals, etc. have perhaps 72 hours fuel for their emergency generators, then what? How much cash in your wallet because cc won't work?
98% of the population has less than 1 day of water on hand and less than 30 days of food on hand. What then? Desperation, panic, and starving mobs. Think the horror of death, destruction, rape, torture, murder, starvation and disease.
Don’t be a victim. Store a year’s supply of food per person and have access to an unlimited quantity of clean water. Oh yeah, be able to hide yourselves and your food from the starving mobs who will kill you for it.
Sleep well………. OK, maybe not so well, but you can sleep a whole lot better knowing your family will not starve. Remember, it is not about you, it is about your children and grandchildren who rely on you for your foresight and wisdom. Start today, right now, buy a shopping cart full of canned goods, rice, etc and develop a place to hide it. Keep it secret, very very secret. (If you store food secretly you do not have to feel foolish or embarrassed about storing food because no one else will know, so go ahead, its OK).
The 5 events?
Cyber attack: This could happen any time
1859 type solar flare: Only a matter of time
Pandemic (1918 type): Only a matter of time
EMP: Iran's space program is well under way, they have two satellites now at 250 miles high and are working to increase pay load.
Multiple Nuked US cities (and the resulting national panic): The Russian Club K container cruise missile system is being sold to Iran and Venezuela. A standard looking 40' container carries 4 cruise missiles, nuke capable, with a 250 mile range flying below radar. They can be launched from a ship, truck or train. If landed in Mexico they could be moved anywhere in the USA. Or, from a boat, the missiles from only one container could take out Philly, Boston, NY and DC. With this system now available to those who want to destroy us and the nuclear genie way out of the bottle, it really is only a matter of time.
“Smart Grids” will make hacking the grid much easier.
I worked in IT for one of the largest utility companies in America and can tell you the risk is very high.
That’s all I’m going to say about that...
Remember the Northeast Blackout?
It would look the same.
Read up on “Stuxnet” to learn in very intimate detail how this will be done, because it already has been, in Iran. Over 85% of critical infrastructure in this country is controlled by the same kind of SCADA systems, which are vulnerable to cyberattack. Even the CIA admits “test attacks” have already been launched successfully, as early as 2008.
The present grid was largely built over 50 years ago out of components such as large oil-filled transformers that have built-in aging and failure mechanisms that are already well past their design lifetime, and in many cases, overloaded or at capacity due to massive expansion of electrical demand. The grid is at risk of failure without cyberattack, whether dumb or smart.
How would someone living in a city have access to unlimited water?
It will come from the EPA, they will regulate a harmless substance and require immediate shut down of all coal fired plants and then...domino.
Ping
Every automated control system I’ve ever built has a safety shut down circuit which functions completely independent of the computer controls. It’s populated with the simplest, most robust, completely mechanical sensors, switches and actuators which positively shut the system down in the event of a hazardous situation or loss of control.
Hopefully, I am not unique in this.
You will need a water filtration system - they are not expensive.
Most cities are located on rivers - you get a 5-gallon pail full and take it back to your house and treat/filter it.
You will need to do that every day - just like in olden times....
You really think someone on the 25th floor of a building in Phoenix could do that?
Where do you get a good water filter system?
How will an electrical grid cyber attack manifest itself?
To paraphrase George Carlin:
Dark, continued dark overnight, with scattered light by morning
Blackouts? Washing machines running backwards?
concentration-of-power alert.
Ha, ha, the computers on the grid are shunt devices, not control devices. That is the monitor and record, they do not control, 75 percent of the power plants are really old equipment. How do I know, my nephew works at a plant that was built when I was about ten years old, he is almost ready to retire.
The first major obstacle is to find an oil fired power plant. Very little of our electrical power comes from petroleum and much of that comes from burning refinery left-overs like Petroleum Coke that is far closer to coal than oil.
One of the many things they could do is disable the pressure control systems and the safety “switches”
It is a lot harder to damage than this author imagines. Pressure safety systems include fail safes that do not require a computer to make a decision. Pressure Relief Valves operate on pressure alone and do need computers to make the decision for them to open, nor can the be prevented from opening by a computer input.
I can’t go into detail, but it is much easier then you would think to take large portions of the electrical grid down, without “hacking”. The thing is, unless you are talking something really catestrophic like a nuke, most of the grid would be brought back on line in days if not hours. There are some parts of the US that if one tower was brought down those people could be out of power for quite a while, but realize those people are in pretty rural areas anyway and can deal with loss of power easier then those in a big city.
My wife and I are lucky, we live real close to the coast and the biggest navy base in the world. If there’s a nuke war or 1000ft waves, it’ll be over for us pretty fast.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.