It was 2015, Christmastime in Ukraine, and the lights shut off. Russia had hacked into their electrical grid and turned the power off. Luckily for Ukraine, the lights only stayed out for a few hours as their systems still utilized the antiquated “giant switch” in which they could reset the grid. It would take months to repair the damaged computer systems and even longer to restore any semblance of security. In the United States, many in the government were more than startled by this cyber intrusion. The U.S. does not have the reset luxury as we have “switched” almost everything to be run by computers. In fact, similar devious software has been found to be implanted in American power plants, industrial systems, and other communication networks. Russian actors have even placed bugged USB drives strategically where government officials have “found them”, plugged them into their computers, and planted a bug without the use of internet. This is in addition to the disinformation campaigns that has been previously discussed in “Russian Experiment” and “Did You Know.” We are vulnerable in this regard which means we must educate ourselves. As former National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster stated, “Citizens should not wait for political leaders or the media to counter cyber-enabled information warfare.” Until we take the time to have the preventative maintenance, (education and implementation) we better load up on candles and matches just in case (Tis’ the season of lights after all). The good news is, we are getting better and there are individuals that are trying to inform the populace. The bad news is, we are very naive and easily distracted. It wouldn’t hurt us if we could change the latter and learn to seek knowledge and understanding. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. One cannot think of Christ without remembering his sacrifice of death on the cross for our sins. If we are unable to even sacrifice a little bit of our distraction time for knowledge, then we might be in bigger trouble than we think. Somebody once said that the greatest source of national strength is an educated people. If this is to be true, we better get poppin’! Merry Christmas!
Late Christmas present ideas: “Battlegrounds by H.R. McMaster; “The Perfect Weapon” by David E. Sanger; and “The Shadow War” by Jim Sciutto
Wilks Wroasting 