Trump amps up defense against EMP attacks

wnd.com ^ | 3/26/2019 | Unknown

[Drumbo]

I’ll bet you bought into the Y2K hype too.

Hype? Do you have a degree in computer science or a tech certification? If so, we can debate - if not you are astonishingly ignorant. As others have said already, I too worked for several years mitigating the Y2K threat which was very real and had it not been for armies of techs like myself in the late 90s it would have been a disaster. The computer companies and remediation firms that paid to fix it beforehand did not waste hundreds of millions on "hype".

As COBOL said: "THANK ME" or at least STFU.

[GOPJ]

President Trump on Tuesday added to his long list of battles by issuing an executive order to increase preparedness for a possible electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack.

Thank God President Trump was elected... the country was blessed that day...

[Jack Hammer]

Long overdue.

[central_va]

EMP is a real physical phenomena. However the effects of EMP caused by a high altitude nuclear detonation are still not settled.

[marktwain]

EMP is a real physical phenomena. However the effects of EMP caused by a high altitude nuclear detonation are still not settled.

Yes, we need far more testing than has been done. The ultimate test cannot be done without severe risk.

[happytrumper]

“Here’s an idea: Require every newly constructed or remodeled gas station to include at least one gas pump that can be operated using a detachable hand crank.”

Like that !!

[central_va]

I guess the right needs their hoaxs too.

[sarge83]

In 2009 I lived without phone or electrical for 3 days after a snow storm. Luckily my parents were had power and I left my kids there. My wife and I survived with gas logs and lots of covers. It’s cold and boring but livable. After that event I bought a small generator to power a refrigerator and a couple of small appliances and keep 15 gallons of gas on hand throughout the winter.

Trump hardening the grid is a good thing, and if they would simply start making new transformers and parts of the system that are replaced hardened, eventually you get a chunk of it ready, plus some funds for replacement transformers etc... for each state should be considered. I am more concerned about a Carrington type event than and EMP. And EMP attack would have to have a lot of things go right to do the damage people are talking about.

[sparklite2]

Too bad we can’t make him president for life.

[Drumbo]

HOW did they ‘print out’ amortization tables YEARS into the future then? I had one on my 2nd mortgage for crying out loud.

For crying out loud yourself. You are saying that I and uncountable others did years of work for nothing because a spreadsheet could calculate amortization tables beyond year 2000 and print them before Y2K? Is that your argument against millions of CMOS chips with defective BIOS? You're a real piece of work there embedded code guy.

Hardware either works or it doesn't, much like light bulbs, except that software (code for those in Rio Linda) can hose everything. Genius code writers like yourself were responsible for the Y2k mess because they didn't have the foresight to program BIOS beyond 1999. Whether it was to save precious MBs (and therefore bux for the mfgrs), laziness or a colossal blunder didn't matter. When the BIOS on those chips rolled over to year 2000 and it didn't exist in the code it would have resulted in TILT - computers, routers, gateways, et.al. no workie, nor would the machines, transit systems, power grids, communication and weapons systems those computers controlled! Saying Y2K was "hype" because everything didn't crash is like calling Polio hype because we found the vaccine. I personally "vaccinated" thousands of machines that would have become boat anchors on New Year's Eve.

For a guy with 'Faraday shields' on his FReeper homepage I would think you'd be a bit more enlightened about EMP effects. Google Starfish Prime. We've known the effects of nuclear EMP since 1962 and Coronal mass ejection since the Carrington Event in 1859. It's about time we harden the grid.

[norwaypinesavage]

"mandated "smart meters" in virtually every home and business in the nation, a)have far more delicate circuits than the old analog models, and b)open up literally millions of new entry points for malware from creative hackers."

Electric meters, both smart and dumb, can be removed and replaced with shorting wires in about two minutes with nothing but a pair of plyers (insulated, of course).

In an emergency, that is!

[itsahoot]

Is there even the capability to build the replacements in the country anymore?

Nope.

[rktman]

Rubber mat!

[itsahoot]

Because we have mandated "smart meters" in virtually every home and business

They only charge me $60.00 a month to come out and read my old meter, what a deal, right?