A major US media source has reported that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned industry members that software programs that “run much of the nation’s critical infrastructure” have been hacked and malware has been embedded throughout the USA’s infrastructure in a way which could cause “an economic catastrophe” (see link). Russia has been identified as the likely attacker against America’s critical infrastructure software as the attacking malware called “black energy” is the same malware “used by a Russian cyber-espionage group dubbed ‘sandworm’ to target NATO and some European [infrastructure] companies in Europe earlier this year.”
This report indicates that Russian cyber-attackers have implanted some logic bombs within much of America’s (and European NATO member nations’) “oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines, and even some nuclear plants.” Obviously, those who implanted this malware into America’s critical systems intend to activate it someday and essentially destroy “life as we know it” within the USA and other NATO nations. If this malware if activated by Russian controllers, it would have much the same destructive impact on American and European nations as the detonation of EMP weapons over North American and Europe. This Russian action vs. the USA and NATO on the cyber-front accompanies Russian military aggressiveness that was mentioned in my previous post, Russian Warlike Moves Growing.
This triggered a thought. If Russia has so much power to devastate the USA and NATO nations already, what is stopping them from using this advantage right now? I think we need to recall that the USA and Israel are assumed to have easily penetrated the Iranian nuclear program with a Stuxnet computer virus a few years ago to set back Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s nuclear reactor was supplied by Russia and Russia has aided Iran’s program. This means that Russian security software programs were accessed by the American/Israeli cyber-attackers who penetrated the Iranian nuclear program’s software defenses. This should have given the American and Israelis cyber-warriors the ability to implant the same kind of malware in Russian, Chinese, and Iranian civilian infrastructures just like the malware implanted into American/European infrastructures by the Russians. Remember that the Western hackers who shut down Iran’s nuclear program’s infrastructures did so easily. This may indicate that there is a modern cyber-version of the old Cold War stand-off of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) that kept the USA and Russia from ever firing nukes at each other. To do so would guarantee the wreckage of one’s one nation as well. Perhaps that is what is stopping Russia from using this advantage now. There may be a cyber-version of MAD in place already.
Combining the information in this post with the warning in my previous post surely should convince anyone that Russia is preparing for warfare against the USA, NATO and its global allies. This is exactly what has been prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39. Modern events are following biblical prophecies “like a script.” There is no stopping their fulfillment. They will be fulfilled on God’s timetable in the future. Many article references about this inexorable prophetic trend were given in my previous post so I won’t repeat them here. Please refer to the previous post for the listing of them.
The ABC News report should make us all realize just how fragile our modern infrastructures really are, and that all Christians (indeed, everyone!) should be taking this threat very seriously and should be making essential preparations for themselves and their families now while they can still do so. We do not know when or whether these infrastructure malwares will be unleashed, but given the all-out wars in the latter days predicted by biblical prophecies, it is almost certain they will be used. I refer readers to my article, Should Christians prepare for Future Hard Times?, as a good starting point for considering and making personal preparations for this kind of an emergency. I suggest no procrastination in making such preparations. It is entirely possible that terrorists may also be working hard to embed such malware in US and Western nations’ critical infrastructure systems. ISIL has proven to be very tech-savvy and they have announced their intentions to target the West in future attacks. There may be more than one entity attacking US and Western infrastructures software systems in order to shut them down or destroy them. I hope the DHS is also watching out for non-state actors in defending American infrastructures from similar malware attacks.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/trojan-horse-bug-lurking-vital-us-computers-2011/story?id=26737476
