BY RUSSELL TURNER
LIVE LIKE A BOY SCOUT
Our world has become a very dangerous place; while many worry about a nuclear or biological attack there are other ways to cause havoc in our lives. Our enemies are aware of ways to harm us with the tools that we take for granted every day.
We Americans have gotten used to modern conveniences. Every time I check out at the local Wal-Mart I can’t help but notice the number of people that pay for their purchases with a credit or debit card. I guess I am from the old school; I still like to carry cash. While it may be convenient to not have to carry cash, there is a downside.
Mobile phones, GPS, the Cloud, Big Data, credit cards, drones and driverless cars are all vulnerable to cyber-attacks. While it may be nice to call a phone number and have your car door remotely unlocked, some crook or hacker has the possibility of doing the same thing. Lone wolf hackers-for-hire are another big wild card: one 15-year-old successfully invaded NASA, causing a 22-day shutdown of systems that support the international space station. Most people that use computers know of the inconvenience that a virus can cause, but a virus is nothing compared to a full-scale cyber attack.
Governments all over the world are pouring massive resources toward developing both offensive and defensive cyber-technologies, with, unfortunately, most of the money spent on offense. A cyber attack could be just as devastating as a limited nuclear attack. Richard Clarke, Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace and National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism, writes that, in the wake of all-out cyber-attacks, the world's infrastructure could collapse within 15 minutes. He and others believe that computer bugs could destroy national systems for e-mail, air-traffic control, underground transportation, and financial transactions. Cash dries up. Power grids go down. Orbiting satellites lose navigation. Pipelines explode.
Several years ago my part of Oklahoma experienced an ice storm that destroyed much of the local power company’s electrical distribution system; I was one of the lucky ones whose power was only off for a week. Fortunately I had a generator and was more prepared than most people. If the power went off across several parts of the country our nation would experience problems like those we saw in Ferguson, Missouri.
Our parents and grandparents were able to withstand tough times because they were far more self-sufficient that our population is today. Because of the entitlement attitude that our government cultivates, many people don’t have a clue on how to survive on their own. The Internet is one of the greatest things to spread knowledge, but it was created for fluid access and convenience — not for security. We Americans could take a lesson from the Boy Scouts, always being prepared is good advice for any condition. A nuclear program is an expensive undertaking, but some computer geek with a computer can cause us untold problems. Until our citizens accept the fact that there are people across the globe that will do anything to destroy us, we will never be prepared.
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