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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » It took months to restore the electric grid in Puerto Rico. How long would it take to restore the US grid or your country's?

It took months to restore the electric grid in Puerto Rico. How long would it take to restore the US grid or your country's?

Posted - March 3, 2018

Responses


  • 10451
    Might take forever if the Russians have hacked into the computers that control the US Power grid . Cheers and happy weekend!
      March 3, 2018 9:21 AM MST
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  • 113301
    I worry about that a lot Nanoose. What better way to cripple the USA without firing a shot? Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday! :)
      March 4, 2018 2:25 AM MST
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  • 3680
    In the UK, widespread power-cuts lasting for more than a few days are rare. The National Grid is very robust and would be not shut down in entirety by normal equipment failure or natural events, though I don't know what if any country-wide havoc could be wreaked by deliberate attacks on key components such as control centres.
      March 3, 2018 11:36 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Hi Durdle! Nice to see you. I worry about  that a lot. I don't know how difficult it would be but if a hostile foreign nation(Russia comes to mind) were to take out our power grid what better way to cripple the USA without firing a shot?  Normal failure due to weather or whatever isn't what scares me. A  premeditated direct attack on power grids for the purpose of crippling us would be quite awful. Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday! So you found me!   I am a category because my questions were driving the reclassifiers nuts. The questions I ask are often compound and the classifiers/reclassifier were having a terrible time trying to figure out where to put them. So the owner of the site came up with what I think is a great solution. Hope you're doing well! :)
      March 4, 2018 2:31 AM MST
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  • 2217
    Famous last words. The National Grid said the recent cold snap was running us out of gas, then was told to hush it up. 
      March 4, 2018 3:22 PM MST
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  • 3680
    I heard that too - though not the bit about hushing it up - and wonder how real the possibility was.

    There was a scheme mooted a few years ago to construct huge underground gas storage-caverns not far from where I live, but it's gone very quiet and may have been abandoned for whatever reason. The cavities would have been created by dissolving volumes of a deep bed of rock-salt about a mile down, reached by drilling through a very thick, overlying, equally-impervious marl. This post was edited by Durdle at March 4, 2018 6:22 PM MST
      March 4, 2018 6:16 PM MST
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  • 3680
    A category of your own, eh? I had spotted it and wondered how you'd managed that! :-)

    It was on-line attacks I had in mind, rather than major natural disasters or physical warfare. I am not sure who poses the greater threat: Russia or China.

    Perhaps one defence is for major State institutions to develop their own, unique IT operating-systems, application software and deep encryption over dedicated telephone-lines between their offices and installations, for sensitive material anyway. I don't know if this possible, but it would mean they cannot be hacked anything like as easily as systems based on the present, Microsoft-dominated network. 

    Recently the US Government wanted a young Londoner with mental problems extradited for trial - and quite likely ridiculously-long imprisonment - in the US, for hacking into official communications. I am not sure what has happened to him so far. However, this was an amateur computer-user in his bedroom in a foreign country finding he can break into sensitive USA defence IT systems merely for his own foolhardy amusement. Presumably this means the professional technicians employed as Internet spies and attackers in a hostile power's fully-equipped eavesdropping services, would find breaking into a utility company's, let alone Pentagon, computers very easy; so why are those systems so fragile? 
      March 4, 2018 12:02 PM MST
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  • 2217

    North Korea would likely be more reckless than Russia or China if it had the chance.

    Deep encryption is of course brilliant... until it is cracked. 

    As for the hacker, the sensible course would have been to bring him on board to identify vulnerabilities for them. 

    This post was edited by Malizz at March 4, 2018 3:27 PM MST
      March 4, 2018 3:26 PM MST
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  • 3680

    I believe North Korea is suspected of already probing other countries' Internet services. Sometimes I wonder if the various reported or suspected attacks from N.Korea, Russia and China are really just tests by them on their own methods and abilities. If so, it's a frightening prospect.  

    Yes, I agree about that hacker. Perhaps prosecuting him is just a face-saving and diversionary tactic.

      March 4, 2018 4:07 PM MST
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