Movie or Real Life?
It’s a morning like any other morning. The headlines have been full of news about mounting tensions with Russia and China. You wake and go to turn on your lights to find that your power has been shut off by what you later find out was a cyber-attack. You take a shower by window light. The water is still clean and usable, since the water treatment plant near you has backup power, but if your home has electric heat, you gradually may find yourself running low on hot water. Or you start to bake because of the heat since it’s summer. Your cell phone may or may not work. Your computer may have backup battery power but will only last a bit.
You think, no worries, as you know the power always comes back on after a bit. But then after 12 hours you began to wonder. The next morning, the neighbors are frantic as you are. You look in your pantry and you realize that you forgot to run to the store a couple days ago. Everything in your refrigerator is going bad and the kids are crying because they are hungry and have no TV or even a way to play DVD’s.
If you think it can’t get more brutal, the increased threat from physical terrorism and violent crime gets worse, targeted at places like malls, grocery stores, neighborhoods, and schools. And then there’s the introduction of hybrid attacks, where adversaries use both physical and electronic means to inflict and combine harm, which renders the threat conditions more dangerous than ever.
It’s a known fact that after 3 to 4 days, people begin to do what they have to get food and water for their family. Riots break out at supermarkets raiding them. You can’t trust your neighbors as they are searching for food themselves, breaking into other homes.
Think about this and what I have been speaking about over the past few weeks about what China is up to in their own words and actions. Chinese men being trained with other nationalities in an abandoned U.S. military base in Panama and come across the U.S. border only to disappear as reported by retired CIA Operations Officer Sam Faddis. Chinese acting as tourist trying to enter military bases as I reported on last week. Chinese being observed photographing factories, Power substations, bridges, and water plants. And the Chinese cyber-attacks that have been going on with the U.S. critical infrastructure.
U.S. Critical Infrastructure
Critical infrastructure provides the services that are the backbone of our national and economic security and the health and well-being of all Americans. Cyber threats to critical infrastructure are one of the most significant strategic risks for the United States, threatening our national security, our economic prosperity, and our public health and safety.
Critical infrastructure, such as power grids, transportation systems, and financial networks, is increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which can have devastating consequences.
Types of Cyber Attacks
Ransomware: Malicious software that encrypts data and demands payment in exchange for the decryption key.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks: Overwhelming networks with traffic to disrupt services.
Malware: Malicious software that can steal sensitive information, disrupt systems, or destroy data.
Phishing: Social engineering attacks that trick individuals into revealing sensitive information.
Recent Examples
Stuxnet: A highly sophisticated worm that targeted Iran’s nuclear program, causing significant damage.
Colonial Pipeline Ransomware: A ransomware attack that shut down a major U.S. pipeline, causing widespread disruptions.
Ukraine Power Grid: A cyber-attack that left hundreds of thousands without power.
Consequences
Economic Losses: Cyber-attacks can result in significant financial losses, disrupting businesses and economies.
National Security: Attacks on critical infrastructure can compromise national security and put lives at risk.
Public Safety: Disruptions to critical services, such as healthcare and emergency services, can have devastating consequences.
Mitigation Strategies
Cybersecurity Measures: Implement robust cybersecurity measures, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and encryption.
Incident Response Planning: Develop and regularly test incident response plans to quickly respond to attacks.
Regular Updates and Maintenance: Keep software and systems up to date with the latest security patches and updates.
Employee Education: Educate employees on cybersecurity best practices and the importance of cybersecurity.
Collaboration and Information Sharing: Encourage collaboration and information sharing between government agencies, private sector organizations, and international partners to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Cyber Attacks on the United States
Cyber-attacks continue between countries all the time, and intel shows it increasing. For instance, there has been a long cyber battle between Iran and Israel, Russia and Ukraine, United States with both Russia and China. Even though some of the cyber-attacks don’t involve the U.S., they still weaken U.S. relations with other countries. With the intelligence community and news media, they spread misinformation and misdirection which cause tension between countries, not to mention their citizens.
Here is an excerpt from THE HILL from February of this year with links embedded.
“On Jan. 31, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, explaining how Chinese government hackers were trying “to find and prepare to destroy or degrade the civilian critical infrastructure that keeps us safe and prosperous.”
These hackers, Wray continued, “are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike.”
Wray's testimony offered a glimpse into the frightening possibilities attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure might unleash. But the truth is actually scarier: The American homeland has been under attack for the past two decades, with little in the way of meaningful response.
Policymakers must, then, begin to strengthen private sector and local preparedness for these ongoing attacks, as well as developing and resourcing the federal interagency for complex emergencies, with an emphasis on societal resilience.
As early as 2009, Chinese and Russian hackers infiltrated America's electrical grid, installing malware that could be used for future attacks. One year later, Russia hacked the NASDAQ stock exchange and not only attempted to steal data but left behind what experts described as a “digital bomb” that could, when detonated, damage financial networks.
In 2013, disaster was narrowly averted after Iranian hackers infiltrated the control systems of the Bowman Avenue Dam in New York and nearly flooded a small town.
A 2017 hack of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in Kansas was later revealed to be the work of Russian hackers, as was a 2022 attack on an international food company, which temporarily closed all of its meatpacking plants in the United States.
China reportedly breached and surveilled the networks of the New York City subway system in 2021. Just this past May, Microsoft reported that the China-backed hacker network Volt Typhoon compromised its IT systems to access critical infrastructure on Guam.
These complex systems of critical infrastructure—which include energy, finance, food and agriculture, health care, municipal services, transportation, water and many more—are vulnerable, and not just to state actors. Even small groups of criminals have left thousands without electricity, cut off responders' communications in major cities and prevented patients from receiving care at hospitals.
These known threats to civilian critical infrastructure are made worse because our national defense is dependent upon some of these very same systems. For example, the ability of the U.S. military to deploy forces overseas depends upon the civilian maritime industry, airlines, ports and railroads (PDF)—all of which have been disrupted by cyberattacks from various bad actors within the past 10 years.
In 2014, the Senate Armed Services Committee reported that Chinese hackers repeatedly breached the networks of U.S. Transportation Command's civilian contractors, upon whom the military would rely for logistical support in the event of war. As Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, warned last year, a foreign adversary could choose to target U.S. infrastructure to gain an advantage in a military conflict.
Given these known threats to the U.S. homeland, policymakers from the national to the local level must act now to better prepare their communities for the impacts of critical infrastructure attacks.”
You can read the entire article on THE HILL linked above, but you should get the picture by now of how serious this is.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has been keeping up on this and reporting ransomware, malware, and groups but you don’t see much of this on the four main left wing, elite paid for, news agencies that most people get sucker punched into watching due to their sheep mentality of being brain washed, (well, if NBC says it then its true). After clicking on the hyperlink and you see a report that interests you, it can be opened by clicking the blue title which will take you to another of their URL sites giving you very detailed information on what happened and how for your own research.
The CENTER FOR STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL STUDIES has a living document you can download with a timeline of cyber-attacks which include many of what Mr. Wray reported on.
One of the latest articles on E&E News, shows Physical threats as well against the grid have seen a sharp uptick in recent years, according to a POLITICO analysis of DOE data.
In Summary
In one of my hats, I’ve worn, as a former NERC CIP Project Manager and Supervisor in Power Transmission Plants across the nation, I have seen where some Power companies have stepped up their protection of the power grid with defensive positions around their substations and plants with state-of-the-art amazing technology. Many of the transformers we utilize has come from CHINA and the FBI has found software imbedded within them that could have been used to disrupt the grid. We need to build these in the United States and there is no reason not to.
As I travel across the country, I see so many states that are either just now beginning to protect their substations and plants or just flat out don’t get the picture. I also know of the ways and means that I will not discuss that these terrorists as well as domestic Eco defense terrorists utilize to disrupt power. These domestic terrorists have no idea of the seriousness.
Fortunately, the FBI has stopped many threats but the threats that are coming across the border on a daily basis, is of great danger to this country and why the present administration has refused to close the border and not put back in place what the 45th President had to protect our country, is treasonous. The number one job of a President of the United States as Commander in Chief is to protect us. Whatever side of the political fence you may fall on, Joe Biden has failed us all, ALL of us. The Intelligence community that now seems to ride over the Presidential office and his authority, has failed us…ALL. The Lawfare and elite control over We the People must stop if we are to keep this republic and protect it.
Cyber-attacks on U.S. infrastructure are a growing worry that requires urgent attention and action. It is vital to employ robust cybersecurity measures, develop incident response plans, and educate employees to stop the risks associated with these attacks. By working together, we as a proud nation can protect our critical infrastructure and ensure the safety and security of our nation.
I end this article with two quotes that come to mind....
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms, it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within” – Abraham Lincoln.
"Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals." - Samuel Adams
Stay Strong and stay safe
Until next week, take care.