NSA Chief: Enemies On Track To Shut Down U.S. Power Grid

by JASmius



Who needs Skynet?

Hope you've stocked away a large supply of freeze-dried foods and a big pile of sweaters, blankets, and sleeping bags:

The U.S. power grid and other crucial infrastructures have been penetrated by the Chinese and other governments, posing a serious threat to shut down the systems and create chaos through cyberattacks.

Admiral Michael Rogers, head of both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Cyber Command, a military arm charged with dealing with cyberwarfare, told the House Intelligence Committee that the U.S. is vulnerable to such attacks, which could shut down utilities, fuel and water delivery, aviation, banking and other computer-based systems, CNN reports.

"It is only a matter of the when, not the if, that we are going to see something traumatic," he told the committee.

What other governments, you ask?:

He noted that there are "probably one or two" other countries with the same capabilities, but declined to name them. However, cybersecurity experts have identified Russia as another threat....

"We're seeing multiple nation-states invest in those kinds of capabilities."....

Joel Brenner, former NSA counsel, told the Washington Post, "Every expert I know believes our electricity grid has been penetrated by Russia and China. Our military correctly assumes these penetrations would enable future attacks and disruptions."

One thing I think we can count on is that the Sino-Russian Axis won't go after our critical infrastructure piecemeal.  When they're ready to take us, it will be part of an overall, coordinated, go-for-broke assault that they are absolutely confident they will win:

Only the people lining the downtown San Diego waterfront saw [the ChiComm cruise missile attacks on two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups], though local TV camera crews were filming the carnage live. Their stations tried to upload the footage to the network satellites but they could not connect. The satellites were gone, knocked out by Russian ASAT missiles.

The rest of America was oblivious to the catastrophe in San Diego, and the similar disaster in Norfolk.

The TV stations next tried the Internet, but it was as if someone had just flicked it off. There was nothing but electronic silence. A coordinated cyber strike had hacked through America’s electronic defenses and shut down the web. Many of the hacks came not from Chinese and Russian teams across the world but from agents within America, infiltrated into key positions in American government and business, who introduced their malware directly into vital systems with thumb drives.

Simultaneously, outside major metropolises, groups of well-trained commandos, driving SUVs, followed the routes between power transmission stations that they had rehearsed using paper street maps (America’s GPS satellites having been eliminated in the opening minutes). With rifles, they opened fire on the critical transformer equipment, which was guarded only by chain link fences and cameras that no one monitored. When the irreplaceable equipment was shorted out and burning, they drove on to the next site and destroyed it. Between the cyber chaos and physical attacks, cities began to black out.

America ground to a halt, blind and paralyzed.

Sounds like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, doesn't it?  Except Admiral Rogers, who is presumably in a position to know, seems to think it's real, and looming, if not imminent.

I hope he's got his resume updated, because after spilling this, he's likely to have a lot of free time on his hands in the very near future, if he doesn't just "disappear" altogether.