Extended Blackouts: Power Grid Completely Vulnerable to Sabotage: “America Could Go Dark”
As if there isn’t enough to worry about already, it seems there is new confirmation that our entire society is hanging by a thread.
The 21st Century is run off of electricity, and in the United States, that electric grid is woefully out of date – and that has left the country quite vulnerable. People’s daily lives depend upon reliable energy, and there are many, such as hospital patients, whose very survival depends upon electricity in the short term.
But in the event of a long-term outage, nearly everyone’s lives would be placed in jeopardy, as commerce, deliveries, fuel, communications and more would grind to a halt.
According to the Wall Street Journal made clear in their special report, the dated grid is completely vulnerable to attack:
The Bakersfield attacks last year were among dozens of break-ins examined by The Wall Street Journal that show how, despite federal orders to secure the power grid, tens of thousands of substations are still vulnerable to saboteurs.
The U.S. electric system is in danger of widespread blackouts lasting days, weeks or longer through the destruction of sensitive, hard-to-replace equipment.
Most substations are unmanned and often protected chiefly by chain-link fences. Many have no electronic security, leaving attacks unnoticed until after the damage is done. Even if there are security cameras, they often prove worthless. In some cases, alarms are simply ignored.
The vulnerability of substations was broadly revealed in a Journal account of a 2013 attack on PG&E’s Metcalf facility near San Jose, Calif. Gunmen knocked out 17 transformers that help power Silicon Valley; a blackout was narrowly averted. The assailants were never caught.
It isn’t just EMPs and natural disaster that poses a threat to the grid, but there is also the potential for attacks on individual power substations in the vast network of decentralized and largely unguarded power grid chain. A U.S. government study established that there would be “major, extended blackouts if more than three key substations were destroyed.”
Whether by criminals, looters, terrorists, gangs or pranksters, it would take very little to bring down the present system, and there is currently very little the system can do to protect against this wide open threat. As the WSJ notes:
Federal officials have long known about the vulnerability of electrical substations. A 1990 report from the federal Office of Technology Assessment warned that “virtually any region would suffer major, extended blackouts if more than three key substations were destroyed.”
[…] individual substations “if rendered inoperable or damaged could result in widespread instability,” or cascading blackouts in any of the three separate sections of the U.S. power grid.
This video shows what happened when a group of white hat hackers broke into a power station to demonstrate what they can do given the lack of security, and the potential for mischief:
Homeland Security has been engaging in drill scenarios with the private sector to prepare a response for if/when the grid does fail, but the simple truth is there would be no quick solution, and thousands or even millions of people could die in a large scale shutdown of the power system. (Mac Slavo SHTFplan.com)
Catalyst: Cyber Attack – How the Internet age has given rise to a pressing threat of cyber warfare
The large-scale effects of cyber attacks don’t bear thinking about. Whole cities could experience blackouts, water management systems could cease to function, transport networks could grind to a halt. High-level power politics between hostile nation states could affect the daily lives of millions of civilians. It is clear that we are truly in the information age, and with the world more connected than ever before, people willing to abuse the system to sabotage their enemies now have the tools at their fingertips to do just that. Anja Taylor explores the world of online hacking, asks how prepared our infrastructure and institutions really are to fend off cyber attacks.
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Backyard Innovator (A Self Sustaining Source Of Fresh Meat,Vegetables And Clean Drinking Water)
Blackout USA (EMP survival and preparedness)
Conquering the coming collapse (Financial advice and preparedness )
Liberty Generator (Build and make your own energy source)
Backyard Liberty (Easy and cheap DIY Aquaponic system to grow your organic and living food bank)
Bullet Proof Home (A Prepper’s Guide in Safeguarding a Home )
Family Self Defense (Best Self Defense Strategies For You And Your Family)
Survive Any Crisis (Best Items To Hoard For A Long Term Crisis)
Survive The End Days (Biggest Cover Up Of Our President)
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Yes, this country is screwing up bad. We need to stick together as Americans but we are devided. Therefore. Those who are steadfast to the protection of our country and our families is extremely important. Glad we have organizations like this one to shed light on issues around us in our country. We need to be ready for whatever is to come.
America is without hope. No use voting anymore for anyone, it cannot be fixed.
There are thousands of towns and cities who have their own power stations,and ARE NOT tied into the grid,BUT like the LINEMAN who was at my house said,SOMETHING funny is going on,ALL OUR PLAN OPERATORS are being laided off and the office people are controling the plants,AND they aren’t doing any maintenace on the plant,OANOTHER WORDS ITS PLANNED TO HAPPEN when OBOOZO gives the order,everything will be turned off,and mass death will follow,,SO HERES MY ADVICE,keep kissing the police gangs ass,mybe your family will be some of the ones who die from TREASON by your government……
This is the travesty of the whole thing! It either doesn’t make it out of committee or is voted down. I understand there is one senator who “cubbyholed” it the last time. The utter shame is that to fix/reinforce nationwide would cost about $1 billion, peanuts in these times. It’s hard not to think this is deliberate. As a matter of fact, it seems deliberate to let out entire infrastructure collapse, roads, bridges, etc. It can take a terrorist hacker or sun, but the bottom line is that many of us will perish within less than a few months. This was once a great country and it is fading before our eyes.