We also see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company-the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. Among the nation’s estimated three million “preppers,” we meet one whose doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a battery-powered radio.
“It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.”Īnd yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors-from “hacktivists” to terrorists-have the capability as well. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure-and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light.
Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. “Fascinating, frightening, and beyond timely.”-Anderson Cooper Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the United States is shockingly unprepared.
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