Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196
A cyberattack could wreak destruction comparable to a nuclear weapon
People around the world may be worried about nuclear tensions rising, but I think they're missing the fact that a major cyberattack could be just as damaging—and hackers are already laying the groundwork.
With the U.S. and Russia pulling out of a key nuclear weapons pact—and beginning to develop new nuclear weapons—plus Iran tensions and North Korea again test-launching missiles, the global threat to civilization is high. Some fear a new nuclear arms race.
That threat is serious—but another could be as serious, and is less visible to the public. So far, most of the well-known hacking incidents, even those with foreign government backing, have done little more than steal data. Unfortunately, there are signs that hackers have placed malicious software inside U.S. power and water systems, where it's lying in wait, ready to be triggered. The U.S. military has also reportedly penetrated the computers that control Russian electrical systems.
As someone who studies cybersecurity and information warfare, I'm concerned that a cyberattack with widespread impact, an intrusion in one area that spreads to others or a combination of lots of smaller attacks, could cause significant damage, including mass injury and death rivaling the death toll of a nuclear weapon.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 21 2019, @05:50PM (2 children)
Was in SouthEast Houston for Katrina - no biggie there. Rita was a cluster of an evac. Also did Andrew in Miami, and a couple of storms more recently with shorter outages, but still long enough to hook up the generator to the house water pump...
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(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 22 2019, @10:41AM (1 child)
Let me hope you enjoy the excitement of seeing a good storm up close.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 22 2019, @11:20AM
I think Andrew qualified as a good storm, I was in North Miami for that - the stronger bands hit north of us in Fort Lauderdale, and the eye hit my Uncle's house in Homestead, but we still had a semi-truck sized pile of itty bitty oak tree branchlets that blew out of the neighbors' trees all over the yard, and nothing to do but rake them up with no electricity (no AC, no fans) in the super clear sunny hot days that almost always follow an early season storm like Andrew. Power didn't come back on there for over 6 weeks, longer in Homestead. A few days after the storm we did manage to hook up a phone to some of the downed landlines and get to dial out for a few calls, but that didn't last too long before 60Hz power bled all over the phone lines, conspiracy nuts would think that BellSouth did that on purpose to stop people from "stealing" long distance from the downed lines. They're the oh-so-caring company who sent bills to people in trashed houses who hadn't had phone service for months, but their first piece of mail was a PAST DUE bill for phone service in the month following the storm.
After that, and seeing Rita/Katrina hit nearby, I'm pretty O.K. with the fact that we missed the year of 4 storms in Miami, and Ike in Houston.
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