Archive
EMP attack on power grid could take down DOD systems, experts warn
Defense systems that depend on the commercial electric grid are vulnerable to electromagnetic pulse attacks and solar storms that could seriously damage the nation’s infrastructure, experts from the Homeland Security and Defense departments told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
The likelihood and the effects of such an event have been the subject of debate, and legislation that would require defenses against them is stalled in the House.
Major military weapons systems and nuclear assets are hardened against EMP events, but “DOD is heavily dependent on the commercial electric grid,” Michael Aimone, director of DOD Business Enterprise Integration, told the subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who testified as a witness at the Sept. 12 hearing, said Russia and several other countries are developing an offensive EMP capability, but there is little protection against such attacks on the commercial grid. He called for installing hardware protection for the most critical elements.
”The major vulnerability we have right now is damage to our major transformers,” which could put parts of the Read more…
Severe space weather: How big a threat?
CSO – Last week a dark spot on the Sun, nearly the size of Jupiter, let go with a massive solar eruption. For a number of days thereafter, scientists around the world waited to see if the discharged solar plasma and charged particles would interfere with communication systems, satellites, computer circuits and even the electrical grid.
Fortunately, while northern parts of the globe witnessed a spectacular light show, communications systems and utilities went unscathed.
Unfortunately, we may not always be so lucky. According to a study published last month by Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications there is about a 12 percent chance that within the next decade such a solar storm hitting Earth could be powerful enough to significantly disrupt satellites and the power grid.
So how prepared is the U.S. to take such an electromagnetic hit to its electric power distribution networks? To put it subtly: not so much.
Experts say it could take Read more…
Solar storm headed toward Earth may disrupt power
WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.
The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth around 7 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the federal government’s Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the flare is growing as it speeds outward from the sun.
“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He called it the sun’s version of “Super Read more…
Anonymous ‘may soon be able to hack into power grid’, warns US national security chief
The Anonymous hacking group may soon have the ability to launch an attack on global power networks, a US official has warned.
Anonymous has no official spokesman but the claims were immediately rejected via the YourAnonNews Twitter account, which is often used by the group to announce events and news Photo: EPA/PANTELIS SAITAS
The claim was immediately rejected by the loosely-linked group of hackers, who accused the National Security Agency of “fear-mongering” after its director, General Keith Alexander, made the claims in the Wall Street Journal.
Hackers also launched a “comments flash mob” attack on the newspaper’s website, and warned “We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us!”
Gen Alexander is said to have warned that the hackers could develop the ability to bring about a limited power outage across the United States and beyond within a “year or two”.
In the report, Gen Alexander was said to have briefed the White House and other top officials about the growing threat from Anonymous.
He said that cyber-attackers could disable or damage computer networks linked to national grids across the globe.
The general has not spoken publicly about the supposed fears, but one unnamed industry executive told the Read more…
New Cyber Attacks Will Target Power Grids And Major Public Works
Russian turbine before the accident
Image: wikipedia commons
Commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command General Keith Alexander said Tuesday that he’s most concerned about attacks targeting America’s electrical grid, and destroying large public machinery.
Gen. Alexander says cyber-attacks over the Internet are shifting from data theft to physical assaults.
To illustrate his point the General used two examples.
First, he pointed to the 2003 Northeast power outage started by a downed tree branch. Following the initial accident at the pole, the utility company’s Read more…
Solar Activity Intensifying
Dr. Mark Sircus, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
On June 7th, Dr. C. Alex Young from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center woke to an email from a friend saying, “I have never seen anything like this before.” There are many things happening around us that we have not seen before, but when it happens on the sun certain people take notice. On the 7th the sun produced a prominence eruption and Dr. Young had never seen such a spectacular event, which luckily did not affect the Read more…
Solar Threat: We’ll Have Minutes to Respond; Government Plans Controlled Blackouts; Elite Contingency Plans
While many will claim that solar storms are an unrealistic threat to our world, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom aren’t taking any chances.
According to a report put together by Alex Thomas of The Intel Hub, the threat is not only real, but very likely, and could change the world as we know it from one day to the next:
In a stunning announcement, The United States and United Kingdom are likely set to began “controlled” power cuts in preparation of a giant solar storm.
The announcement by Thomas Bogdan, the director of the US Space Weather Prediction Centre, comes a week after a large scale solar flare released a massive amount of radiation and threatened to cause moderate disruption.
The solar flare on June 7th, 2011 was luckily pointed away from Earth but caused Read more…
NASA issues warning of solar superstorm 2012: One billion could die
Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012?
No less than NASA thinks it’s a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the world.
The headlines reverberating around the world speak volumes: ‘Leaks discovered in Earth’s magnetic field,’ Solar storms to wreak havoc,’ ‘The end of life as we know it,’ ‘Magnetic shift to cause global superstorms.’
NASA and the European Space Agency say yes.
2012 and the rising specter of doom
Among all the countries with exposure to the solar devastation, the United States is the most susceptible. Read more…
Solar Storms Season Heating Up
Sunspots — cooler regions fraught with intense magnetic fields — now regularly dot the surface of the sun, and the star has unleashed several powerful flares in recent months, including a Feb. 14 blast that was the most powerful outburst in more than four years. All signs suggest that the sun has shaken itself out of its slumber, researchers say. After three years in a deep solar sleep of historic proportions, the sun is starting to wake up.
In 2008, the sun plunged into its least active state in nearly a century. Sunspots all but vanished, solar flares subsided and the star was eerily quiet. Quiet spells on the sun are nothing new. They come along every 11 years or so, as part of the sun’s natural activity cycle. But this latest solar minimum lasted longer than usual, prompting some researchers to wonder if it would ever end.
This year has started off with a bang, as sunspots are crackling with activity. Earth-orbiting satellites have detected Read more…
NAM 12: Scientists see solar outburst in exquisite detail
The largest disturbances to the Earth’s geomagnetic environment occur when it is buffeted by solar material hurled in our direction by explosive changes in the Sun’s atmosphere. These Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs contain approximately a billion tonnes of ionized gas or plasma and can have a dramatic and damaging impact on everything from satellites to power grids.
Now a team of scientists have used two spacecraft to study these events in unprecedented detail. Graduate student Anthony Williams of the University of Leicester will present their results on Tuesday 19 April at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.
Mr Williams and his team used the Heliospheric Imagers (HI) on the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft to examine the internal structure of an Earth-impacting CME – seen as sunlight scattered from high density blobs of plasma – as it travels outwards from the Sun. They compared this with the internal structure measured in situ by the Read more…
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
crisisboom
CRISISBOOM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.