In a story not likely to make the Evening News programs, US Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn has warned that “new disruptive cyberattacks are on the near-term horizon (emphasis added).” The organization in the first link has raised the cyberattack threat risk to the USA to “between 4.0 to 4.3” on a scale of 0 to 5. Deputy Secretary Lynn further warns “we will” see “much destruction” from cyberattacks in the future.
The first link below warns of the extensive damage that could be done to the computer-based controls of the USA’s massive internal infrastructures if a “Stuxnet-type attack” were launched against the USA. The Stuxnet attack was, of course, a computer-based cyberattack against the Iranian nuclear facilities which severely set-back Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Iran has blamed the USA and/or the Israelis for the Stuxnet cyberattack against Iran. Iran is, no doubt, highly motivated to seek revenge against the USA and the Israelis by launching a similar attack vs. the USA. I think a person would have to be very naive to think preparations for such a cyberattack vs. the USA are not already underway. Perhaps that is why Secretary Lynn warned a cyberattack vs. the USA is on the “near term horizon.”
The article also warns that the US private sector is not “fully engaged” in protecting its own critical infrastructures from such a cyberattack. The article states that “85%” of America’s critical infrastructure is owned or operated by the private sector. Amazingly, the article concludes the US private sector, motivated by profit-seeking, is not acting to defend its own critical infrastructures “unless the government funds these efforts.” This is a stunning observation for two reasons. The first is that the US government has no money to “fund” any such private-sector efforts. The US government is effectively broke, since it cannot fund its Treasury debt auctions anymore without substantial amounts of that debt being “monetized” by the Federal Reserve Board (which creates money out of thin air to buy the gigantic debt offerings issued by the profligate US government). Secondly, since a successful Stuxnet-type cyberattack could effectively shut down or put out of business many private sector corporations if their critical infrastructures were damaged, why are these private sector corporations not highly motivated to protect their own critical infrastructures as necessary (and deductible) business expenses? In a related story, the second link reports that a cyberattack was just launched against the French aerospace industry. This confirms the vulnerability of virtually any civilian or military entity to sudden cyberattacks.
While Iran is highly-motivated to attack the USA and Israel in a cyberattack, it is only one of the “Gog-Magog” nations listed in Ezekiel 38 as enemies of the latter-day nations of the “house of Israel” (the USA, the UK, many NATO nations and others as can easily be proven by reading my books and articles on the subject at this website and/or listening to my free audio messages on the subject at the “speeches” link at this website). It is well-known that China has sophisticated cyberattack capabilities and Russia has already reportedly launched cyberattacks against other nations. This allows for the possibility that Russia and/or China could launch a cyberattack vs. the USA and the West and let Iran get blamed for it. Indeed, as the article in the first link notes, there are now so many non-state actors who could launch cyberattacks that one could be perpetrated vs. the USA and the USA may not know who launched it. A “false flag” operation is also possible in a situation where it is hard or impossible to trace the origins of such an attack.
You have been warned! If (and when) such a cyberattack cripples corporate or governmental infrastructures on which you and your family are dependent (utilities, stores, suppliers, government agencies, etc.), you could be largely “on your own” for some time until major repairs can be made to damaged computer-controlled infrastructures. That could be weeks or months. The third link lists a basic set of supplies everyone needs to have for major disasters or emergencies. This list, from FEMA, is based on a three-day emergency need, but a crippling cyberattack could cause a need for such emergency supplies to last for weeks or months. I hope you take heed and act on FEMA’s advise, but plan for a longer emergency period than a mere three days. Even a severe ice-storm or tornado could cause you to be without utilities and normal consumer goods for much longer than three days. Indeed, a large section of Northeast Japan may never recover due to the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster which recently struck that region. Consider the advice of Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 as you make your preparations. God thought that warning to prepare for future dangers was so important that he put this warning in the book of Proverbs twice for emphasis.
My thanks to an alert reader for tipping me off to this report.
