Head of NSA Says Attack to U.S. Power Grid a ���Matter of When, Not If���
As calls continue to grow around the country for more attention to be paid to threats to the power grid, so, too, has the stature of those sounding the alarm. While we���ve not heard the President of the United states address these threats, including those posed by an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack, in a direct way with the American people (yet), it is difficult to find someone much better placed and with more credibility on the subject than the chief of the National Security Agency, Admiral Michael S. Rogers, and he has been very vocal on the subject.
Most recently, at the RSA cyber security conference recently held in San Francisco, Admiral Rogers declared that it is a ���matter of when, not if��� that a nation-state hostile to U.S. interests would initiate an attack against North America���s power grid. Rogers��� comments came on the heels of the U.S. government���s confirmation that a blackout affecting 225,000 people in the Ukraine last December was the result of a cyber-attack executed by a Russian-based hacking group.
In his comments, Admiral Rogers also stated that he had significant concerns about threats to the power grid initiated by such non-state rogue actors as the Islamic State.
One of the significant threats to the power grid exists in the form of the aforementioned EMP attack. Senator Ted Cruz, during a recent debate featuring the GOP presidential candidates, underlined the very real possibility of such an attack at the hands of a motivated nation-state enemy like North Korea. Pay particularly close attention to what Cruz says at the 1:38 mark of the video:
While an EMP event can be caused by solar storms and lightning bolts, it can also be caused by a calculated nuclear explosion, as Cruz points out. The detonation of such a weapon by a rogue nation or non-state group could plunge an affected region into a world of darkness, and it is estimated that it could take years for an area to recover from an EMP attack.
We have mentioned a couple of excellent resources in this space on the subject of how to prepare to survive an EMP attack. One of those is Darkest Days, a 177-page, spiral-bound, fully-illustrated manual (8 1/2 x 11 page size), that goes through the A to Z of how to survive an electromagnetic pulse attack. This is a terrific piece of material, and one that will serve you well either as a stand-alone EMP survival resource, or as a complement to other EMP survival information you may already possess. Additionally, not only is Darkest Days available for a great price, but the purchase comes with a 60-day, money-back guarantee, so that if you are not satisfied for any reason, you can get a no-hassle refund. To learn more about Darkest Days, or to pick up your copy directly, Click Here.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
