Posted on 02/21/2010 9:10:03 PM PST by bamahead
What if a crippling attack struck the country's digital infrastructure? Experts including current and former officials tackle the question. The results show that the peril is real and growing.
The crisis began when college basketball fans downloaded a free March Madness application to their smart phones. The app hid spyware that stole passwords, intercepted e-mails and created havoc.
Soon 60 million cellphones were dead. The Internet crashed, finance and commerce collapsed, and most of the nation's electric grid went dark. White House aides discussed putting the Army in American cities.
"We're in uncharted territory here," was the most common refrain during a three-hour simulated crisis meeting of the National Security Council, the crux of the Cyber Shockwave exercise.
...SNIP...
The public rarely gets a peek at government war games. If Tuesday's no-cliche-left-behind version at times resembled a sci-fi thriller, no one doubts that the peril to telecommunications and other crucial computer-run systems is real and growing.
...SNIP...
In the end, no grand plan emerged, but the group did agree to advise the president to federalize the National Guard, even if governors objected, and deploy the troops -- perhaps backed by the U.S. military -- to guard power lines and prevent unrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
You’re right about the National Guard not having enough manpower to guard everything. And sadly, with politics as they are, you’re probably right about the rest. The Guard, besides doling out food supplies to civilians here and there, would be positioning combat units and support against any foreign military incursion in a broadly, unprecedentedly ugly scenario.
IMO, there are many personal preparations we can make for nationwide hard times. But one of the wisest would be finding out which neighbors we could get along with—neighbors who have also made preparations for emergencies and possess very calm demeanors (no pride or easy anger that could lead to hysterics). ...even if there are only one or two of ‘em in the whole neighborhood. Poor situations can be more exhausting than most people realize, and most of the exhaustion and other miseries in most neighborhoods won’t come from violence—at least not in most neighborhoods.
Thirst, hunger, injury, illness and exhaustion are much more prevalent in most such cases and places. The television folks do like to concentrate on places like Haiti, though.
My God, it is Y2K all over again. And we all know what damage that did to the world.
I’m currently doing my thesis on cyber warfare, cyber retaliation, cyber aggression & cyber deterrence
The idiots on this panel obviously had done no research into these topics prior to the war game.
Wish they had taken the time to get some people who actually had some knowledge of computers, cyber security & cyber law.
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