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| The National Grid will collapse , if its EMP Attack , or just plain negligence on the part of the Utilities Company we should be getting ready for being without power ,water internet and telephone for a long time . |
WELL with MUCH SPECULATION with regards to the nationwide AT&T system failure that we just had a few days ago . IS this a PRELUDE to what is going to happen ? I have to start in my state of California with this rant . NOW WHEN I am talking about right now is currently " ALL UTILITIES " [ Water , electrical and communications] . ERR , if there was an apocalypse scenario, then I don't think debt would matter then, right? Lol. I'm just saying... but in all regards that is fantastic model to be debt-free and I think that should be everybody's goal. Same as prepping for anything else but it might last longer. Unless there is an EMP strong enough to knock offline hundreds of substations offline at once power would be back in a few weeks at most. Don’t get me wrong, if something like that happens supply chains will be locked up for years and would cause a HUGE problems with the cold food supply and those who depend on medications. Just prep with three months as goal and you should be fine for literally all but the absolutely worst situation.The question isn’t weather a hack would take the grid down but scale of preps. This kind of attack has happened to Ukraine during its war with Russia and hacks were less effective than expected. This hasn’t, apart from this, been used in a major war but we can predict based on similar events. The big issue in the cyber attacks on infrastructure has less to do with functionality, at least in my understanding, and more to do with files being tracked to see who owes what. At the point of a cyber attack that lasts for weeks, we will all be in a world of hurt and nothing can be prepared for it. But a few weeks with no power isn't going to change my life much. I have lots of food and water.
AT&T CYBERATTCK ???
So first , I will like to start with AT&T , which probably going to crash first . If a EMP attack was to happen , it will be like a gut blow out with the old telephone company , that has probably the shadiest billing services , is pulling the plug on it's copper landline service for a more internet based service which could crash if there was a cyber attack . AT&T filed an application to end its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligation in March 2023. The first of several public hearings on the application is being held today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which is considering AT&T's request. An evidentiary hearing has been scheduled for April, and a proposed decision is expected in September.Recent comments from residents stressed the importance of landlines for emergency services. Residents also described problems with wireless service that could serve as the only replacement for copper networks in areas that AT&T hasn't deemed profitable enough for fiber lines.
If it’s not a cyber incident it’s not required to be reported. This could be an internal routing issue. Isn't it hilarious how all these suits and companies laid off their IT and Security teams; and then all of a sudden we start seeing catastrophic service failures and security incidents??? It's like the positions are critical or something.The number of direct physical attacks on U.S. power grids soared 77 percent last year to 163, a record-high, according to the US Energy Department. Since last September, attacks were reported on 18 substations and one power plant each in Florida, Oregon, Washington and the Carolinas. The attacks underscored the vulnerability of the U.S. electric grid, which keeps electricity flowing across more than 470,000 miles of circuits and includes more than 7,300 power plants, 160,000 miles of high-voltage power lines and 55,000 transmission substations.We didn't know for several hours what was causing the outage last week, but what we did see has given some reassurance. Federal authorities really jumped to action fast. The FBI, Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission all worked together to make sure there was not a bigger threat.Of all the contingencies we can prep for, CI & ICS vulnerability is at the forefront. Dirty bombs, EMPs, civilian war…all of those are much less likely than a nation-state hacker jacking up our water purification and power plants (for example). Lots of precedent in that space already: https://www.eenews.net/articles/inside-the-water-sectors-push-to-gird-for-russian-hackers/Gen-Pop doesn’t realize the full magnitude of how perilous our CI & ICS landscape is. It’s one of the major verticals in my professional space. The Feds (yeah, yeah..pls save it) DO get it and have a sizable initiative to fortify it…but it’s a long way from being bulletproof.If you can check off the bulletpoints in the post above, you’ve got a fighter’s chance at navigating a disruptive cyber event.
PG&E CRASHING in TWO YEARS 2025 AD.
Besides AT&T going crashing . The West Coast , pretty much California is being set up for a major power grid catastrophe . It may not be TERRORISM . But a big company failure .I agree that PG&E is corrupt and inept and needs to be totally revamped. But being “rescued” by the SF Board of Supervisors is like Bozzo the clown dashing into the cockpit of a crashing airliner to save the day. PG&E is trying to squeeze the consumer to pay for upgrades in how electrical systems are delivered . Now the new scheme is to charge consumers based on income , rather than use. This seems clearly meant to recapture revenue from solar customers. Solar customers that generate all the electricity they use would pay up to $1100 per year in additional charges despite effectively using zero power. Might as well add battery power and go completely off grid at that point.“The proposal recommends a qualified, independent state agency or third party be responsible for verifying customers’ total household incomes”. WE can also guess that PG&E has it's pockets in the state governor's pockets like NEWSOM , who has benefited to the corrupt utilities company . "Customers for California’s three major power companies — including PG&E ratepayers — can expect to see some big changes in their monthly electricity bills in the coming years as compliance with a new state law begins to unfold."This is so useless. Which law?This is blatantly discrimination. What if high income earners are actually more conservative to the power usage. Doesnt make any sense. It feels like just another way of getting more money because of solar. And the relevance of this tale isn’t just confined to the West Coast—it should alarm anybody who’s ever turned on a light. As Blunt writes: “PG&E’s failure isn’t just a California story. It is, in many ways, a harbinger of challenges to come as climate change exacerbates the vulnerability of the grid, built decades ago to serve a different era of electricity demand.” This 2025 crisis was not simply caused by negligence and poor planning, he outcome is dismal when the growing spectre of climate change collides with negligence, greed, and market-driven interference. Blunt points out that utility companies across the U.S. West face the same threat of fire, while in the rest of the country climate change-fuelled storms menace the grid—and in many of those places, companies must also sacrifice safety in the service of profit.That (scope) is true. Plus some of the lines are VERY old.But, they dug their own grave. They have not been maintaining them properly for ages. And, on a similar vein, they knew the industry was going to change radically, at least a decade ago. Maybe they (and most of us) didn't know it was going to change that fast but it is their business to plan for changes.I have *very* little sympathy for PG&E. But... at the end of the day they are a for profit company. On the other hand, the CPUC is supposed to represent us, the California consumers, and they have not.
EMP ATTACK ???
In 2034: A novel of the next world war”, this is employed against the U.S. and results in a crippling of the U.S.’s basic functions. Very possible with all the proliferation of tech and reliance on digital transactions versus hard currency. EVERYTHING is run by computers, gasoline pumps, water, power grids. And you can guarantee when people are in line at Walmart at they can't checkout they'll just leave with baskets of shit. It won't take but a few weeks to turn into chaos. Cyber attacks should be taken far more seriously. The book by Ted Koppel, Lights Out, elaborates how catastrophic things could be (and how vulnerable we are.) It is more of a documentary with interviews, etc.It seems like in today's day and age, some foreign nations choose the death by a thousand cuts method. So they won't bring everything down all at once, but little by little over time.And if COVID was a soft test of our mental, I fear your right. I suppose for those taking notes, Americans really do only need like 3 weeks to forget a major event and move on. survive the main wave of panic and things should be manageable 😂 This and financial issues are my focuses in prepping. Imagine America paralyzed for even a month with limited access to internet, payment systems, critical infrastructure.It’s not even about a single blow, just the ability to cause widespread chaos solely through the internet/computers that’s so terrifying. In that scenario, I’m not worried about Chinese paratroopers or a secret migrant army - I’m worried about everyone losing their minds with fear.Seriously, I think I’m 100x more likely to get killed by some panicking Americans than any foreign soldier. We are the biggest threat to ourselves.
