So, last Friday, I gave you a hint of the kind of warfare our infrastructure is enduring.  Not well, mind you.   Which means we are at risk.  At risk of being flooded out of our homes, left in the dark, having our factories shut down, or traveling our roads confounded with lights that are arranged for congestion or collisions.

Now, I can tell you that our government feels that this sort of attack differs from the Stuxnet virus attack.  Why?  Because those viri was developed (and restricted) to attack Siemens (specifically) centrifuges.  The kind used by Iran to create weapons.  (By the way, didn’t anyone besides me realize that Siemens had been violating the Iran embargo, which is why we knew that virus only had to be effective against Siemens’ centrifuges?)

And, since those were industrial control systems employed to violate international sanctions, the US government considers this different from attacking our hospitals and water systems and electrical grids.  Obviously, not everyone agrees.

(This kind of reminds me how the world condemns Israel for bombing military installations and caches hidden in hospitals and schools.  Until it becomes ovbious that American or European bombs have to do the same thing in Syria, Libya, Iraq, etc.   Then, it’s ok.)

But, this is the new warfare.   Many of you remember Ted Koppel, whose wonderful program, Nightline, adorned our evening telecasts.  He was the voice of reason and background, right after Iran kidnapped our State Department personnel back in 1979.  And, he has written a new book, “Lights Out:  A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath”.

He discusses how China has obtained vital statistics (because the government don’t protect its employee’s identities) for some 22 million federal employees.  Or, how North Korea exacted revenge for the silly movie, The Interview, by revealing all of Sony Pictures’s emails.  Or, how Russia attacks our banks.

Why?  Because we don’t really consider all the uses- and inherent safety holes- in the internet that we use each and every day.  (Every moment of the day?)  Why?  Because we designed the system, once it was separated from Arpanet (the Department of Defense created what we call the internet to facilitate the transfer of research results), to allow for the free and complete exchange of information.

But, that’s a real problem when you think about our electric grid.  All those power companies (about 3000 of them)  sharing information, trying to make sure that a small glitch in one system won’t leave slews of people and factories without power.  But, think back (if you are old enough).  When Big Allis (the then Consolidated Edison plant in New York City that relies on huge Allis Chalmers turbines) went dark.  At the time, it was the world’s largest steam energy facility, and it went down.  And, that was because of human error setting a switch in Ontario- CANADA!  Leaving the entire Northeast dark on a warm November night in 1965.

We better get used to that, because it’s going to happen again.  And, last for days.  Because when one of those connected (in a loose sense) plants gets attacked, the others will try to make up the difference and be taken down, too.  The “supervisory control and data acquisition systems” that link these facilities is ridiculously easy to be hacked.

And, Russia employed just that hack to the Ukraine.  Those hacks knocked out a power company in Western Ukraine  (Prykarpattyaoblenergo) around Christmas (23 December 2015).   Moreover, two other utility companies had similar attacks- but those attacks didn’t “trigger” properly, saving other civlians from the same dark fate.  And, the piece de resistance?   The “fingerprints” on these attacks match those attacks on power systems in California.  It seems that the Russians may have been honing their attacks- and now have figured out how to leave lasting damage.

You’d think with these sort of warnings, our government would do something.  Oh, wait. They did.   The Federal Emergency Management Agency (part of Homeland Security) has listed cyberattack under it’s response to floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes.  (Yup.  that was their response.) And, we know how well FEMA handles those.  (Anyone else waiting for their Sandy relief checks?)

Which is really a problem.  Because when our grid fails (notice I did NOT say ‘if”), there will be no usable evacuation plan.  Because the traffic lights won’t be working, among many other failures.  And, information won’t be transmittable to citizens, who won’t have operating phones, radios, TVs, etc.  Hospital blood supplies and drugs will go bad- quickly.  (Think back to what happened to New Orleans after Katrina.)

You know folks, sometimes the sky is falling.  So, I guess y’all better have that three day supply of non-perishable food and water for your family.  And, a place to hoard some cash, since the ATM’s also won’t be working.

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