Discussion: After Russian Hack, Officials Panic About Vulnerable U.S. Electric Grid

So many wrong statements there, I don’t even know where to start.

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Can’t be the Russians. Putin said so and DJT believes him.

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Yeah. That’s not much of a threat. But I think and hope we have ample capacity to fight fire with fire. Would have to be authorized from the top, though, and that’s—complicated.

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Sure. And give airline pilots sextants.

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Someone should tell Trump no electric grid means no Fox News and no getting off on watching himself on television. That oughta focus his mind, for once.

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Faucet Power baby!

I think the concearn was more over internal migration as people flee the affected areas for areas not affected.

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I once had a conversation with a brainiac who told me he always kept his cell phone fully charged in case there was a massive power outage. When I pointed out that cell phone towers require electricity he proudly informed me that although he might not be able to make phone calls he could still IM people.

I know, you’re thinking “He sounds like a tRump supporter.” Yup.

That said, It’s not a matter of if Russia attacks our infrastructure, it’s when.

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I would think they would do it the day of the elections, nullify the elections, and cause the current system to go into a hold pattern. Given the current Republican congress, they might try to insist we wait for the next election cycle to clean up the mess, using the new SC alignment to back stop their decision. That would lock in the favorable conditions for Republicans, and Putin of course.

The overarching problem regards this moving from asymmetric attacks to a direct confrontation. With people actually hurt, or the party representing half the country basically removed from participation, the potential for an all out war, and what that means increases very dramatically at some point in the future.

My concern here is that Putin is playing a super high-risk game assuming that nuclear weapons capability gives him impunity to all out war. May be he is right but based on what has occurred historically, I would not assume this at all.

The best possible approach on our side is to nullify Putin’s capability so this cannot happen and reduce the risk of a direct confrontation.

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Sadly this is I think a real possibility, what easier way to completely disrupt an election, throw many contested races into turmoil and then to the courts, etc.

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Yeah… worst case scenario… they cripple the power generating capability (or the water supply or sewage system) for our large, heavily populated urban areas and we would see the Danziger Bridge scenario played out all across the country. :frowning:

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The US has already detected specialized Russian submarines lurking around the fiberoptic cables in the North Atlantic and elsewhere.

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Because it’s getting browner.

They are deathly afraid of being in the Minority and treated like they have treated minorities.

Its actually pretty simple.

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And we will continue to waste energy, and be vulnerable to cyber-espionage.

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Key point. The U.S. probably has more hacking power than Russia does.

One interesting tidbit in the most recent Mueller indictment of Russian nationals was its inclusion of bitcoin ledger data. That means the NSA has already hacked bitcoin, rendering its crypto features useless. Surprised I haven’t yet seen a mention of that anywhere…yet. I’ll bet it was noted in Russia though…

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It would be a mistake to think the government or utility companies have either high on their priority list.

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Another solution is for government and civil society to do it’s fucking job and protect us. This bullshit, survivalist, McGivierist nonsense will only work for you for just so long. And the fact you’re positing on this site tells me you’re not off the grid.

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Many telecoms stations have a backup battery (which will last a few hours )

Another things is, that many modern Generating plants require power from the outside to start ! They can’t start by themselves.

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So long as I can watch the latest episode of Animal Kingdom before I’m forced into the forest to forage for nuts and berries I’m OK with all this.

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They will suffer as a result of their support for Republicans, but will blame Obama.

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