For years we have warned our readers about the dangers that a full-scale cyber-attack could have on our infrastructure; now those dangers are even higher as the Federal Government prepares to launch Pre-emptive cyber strikes against rogue nations.
According to the New York Times, President Barack Obama has just concluded a secret legal review of the administration’s new cyber war guidelines. The guidelines give President Obama the power to order pre-emptive cyber strikes to protect national security interests. This news comes as a number of financial institutions have recently admitted to being hacked by foreign hackers.
Last month, we spoke to cyber security expert Damon Petraglia, about the dangers we face in this new era of cyber warfare. Petraglia shared his thoughts on how vulnerable our country is to cyber-attacks, and suggested that our entire cyber-supply chain is already under attack.
He told us, “We have been attacked and we are under attack 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Our military systems are probed in excess of hundreds of thousands of times per hour. Our private industry can claim similar statistics.”
How can you prepare for the coming cyber wars?
Petraglia suggests, “Preparing for an actual worst case scenario is similar to the preparations one would make for extended period without adequate food and water supplies and access to emergency services.”
Threat Assessment: Part of being prepared for any type of threat, means knowing exactly how that threat will affect you during a time of crisis. By performing a realistic threat assessment, you can get a better idea of what actions you need to take during a real life cyber-attack situation.
Emergency Communication: When the power lines go down and the internet stops working, there is one line of communication that will still be alive and well: Ham Radio! Having a good Multiband Ham Radio will allow you to send and receive critical emergency information during a disaster. It’s also a great way to find alternative news sources from around the world.
Always have Cash on Hand: If a rogue nation were to target our country for attack, one of the first targets would likely be our power grids and or our financial systems. In either scenario, an attack would likely make electronic commerce almost impossible. During a full scale cyber war, cash will play a major role in how people buy and sell during the initial stages of the crisis.
Start Stockpiling Preparedness Supplies: The first thing you need to do is make sure you have your essential needs covered. The essentials include water, shelter, food and personal security. At a minimum, you should always have at least a week’s worth of emergency supplies on hand at all times. Once you have that covered, you should then set a goal to stockpile enough for 3, 6 and then 12 months.
Know what you’re preparing for, and know what obstacles you’ll be up against: When planning for any type of disaster scenario, including a cyber-attack, there’s really only one thing that we can be sure of; Survival will be a bigger challenge than you ever believed possible. While you can’t be ready for everything, there are some things that you may want to consider when planning for any type of survival situation.
This is actually pretty damn scary. I don’t think people understand how dependent this country has become and how our system is connected. A cyber war is almost scarier than a real war because they could crash everything within hours. No more money, power, delivery systems, or anything.
I am more concerned about the Millennials..they are so absorbed in electronic things…they have chosen to pass on knowledge that would keep them safe, alive, and free. They laugh when I tell them about preparing for problems. Everyone should have a bug out plan…even small towns will be affected.
99% of those under 40 are screwed since these idiots can’t seem to do anything without their head buried in an electronic device
I agree to an extent but not all of us are that way! But please don’t group all millennials together as idiots. It’s the millennials that are the ones defending the grid, networks and data systems to begin with so I would appreciate a little respect.
RESPECT and much thanks. But I hope since you are reading this you also are old school prepping. We will need people to restore things.
And 99% over 40 of age is sick and on multiple meds equally dependent on the system.
In most cases I agree most couldn’t wipe their own azz if they didn’t have a tutorial on their Iphone…now they are flooding. They had to even build a phone for dunbazz’s, one that is smarter than the user (that’s a short trip)hense the creation of the “Smartphone”. LOL!
While I’ll agree that many people these days have their heads permanently buried in a screen, some of us younger individuals do take potential threats seriously. while I work in the tech sector and was born after 1980 I still have the ability and foresight to amass a decent cache of survival goods (including my 12 gauge – don’t try it). I’ll be “sitting pretty” while the rest are scouring the dumpsters.
Technology does have it’s problems, doesn’t it? Nobody every hacked 4 layer carbon paper. Production systems were once controlled by people, not PCs. The only way to steal somebody’s identity was to get their wallet. Now, we’ve got the bad guys working 24×7 to find a crack in the wall.
And we think we’re the best in the world – so good that we can launch pre-emptive strikes against nations who make it their business to try to find ways into our systems all day every day? I sure hope that is right – otherwise it’s like picking a fight with the biggest guy you can find when you’re 5’4″.
You are so very right. I think they are opening a can of worms that they will never be able to close. Once they do this it will be an all out war and I don’t think the have thought about the consequences.
I’m sure our government got it under control. They wouldn’t be launching an attack unless they knew they were gonna win. They just trying to protect us.
Angelica, the forum for idiots who trust the government is somewhere else. Bye now
What world do you live on? The U.S. government is here only to protect the interests of their masters, the international banking cabal that runs your life and everyone else here in the USA.
HARDY HAR HAR. . . Most can smell the American Government’s arrogance 7 continents away.
Not entirely true. You info is much more vulnerable to loss or theft in paper form. Take a doctor’s office for example. I used to work with electronic medicals records. With EMR you can control who has access to what, it’s anonymously stored in an encrypted environment and transmitted with an encrypted connection. Those connections are built by the open source community who has access to see any security flaws in the code and to make it secure. It’s not flawless, but I trust machines more than people in that case. Technology isn’t without flaws, but it’s not nearly as bad as people think. The worst part about it is the vulnerability of the power grid and electronics to EMP.
I don’t think that it’s right to attack another nation this way.
I think your missing the point. For someone to steal the records on paper they would have to go to that individual place and take it. And they would only be able to do one place at a time. If all the info is on a network and that is hacked then all the records can be taken from all the offices at one click… Do u not understand the topic of this conversation is about hacking a little firewall would not stop a professional hacker from getting in there, it may not even stop some rookie hackers.
I’m just lucky that I’m too young to have any of my important information stored on the internet. I don’t have Paypal or anything like that. I’m worried about what’ll happen to my relatives, though. It’ll be hard for all of us to live without power and internet for a time, but as long as our information isn’t stolen we’ll be fine.
I suggest practicing one of the most satisfying hobbies human race needs. Bushcraft. Take a few days outta the week and learn how hard it can and will be to survive without modern comforr
Hey, im a 14 year old preper and if our power grid got hit, I would have a hard time becase my mom says I have to keep all my emergency supplies in a backpack so because of that my food supplies are only 9 cans of vienne sausage. But I want to altleast have a variety of food. Anyone got any answers.