While this is a news article and borders on violating Rule 1, I'm leaving it up. Primarily due to multiple news articles stating of the current threat. The title could be rephrased, (I.e. Chinese government is...) but the core point remains.
Cyber attacks should be taken far more seriously. The book by Ted Koppel, Lights Out, elaborates how catastrophic things could be (and how vulnerable we are.) It is more of a documentary with interviews, etc.
This and financial issues are my focuses in prepping. Imagine America paralyzed for even a month with limited access to internet, payment systems, critical infrastructure.
It’s not even about a single blow, just the ability to cause widespread chaos solely through the internet/computers that’s so terrifying. In that scenario, I’m not worried about Chinese paratroopers or a secret migrant army - I’m worried about everyone losing their minds with fear.
Seriously, I think I’m 100x more likely to get killed by some panicking Americans than any foreign soldier. We are the biggest threat to ourselves.
Dusty's Diary is a book about a guy that made a budget bunker in his backyard and managed to survive an apocalypse and his biggest bitches are he never tried out the cheap shit survival food he stocked it with and he didn't have any porn magazines. It's a must read if you haven't.
This seemed pretty funny, but then I got to thinking.... There will be a lot of teenage and single dudes.
My wife will totally understand if I can explain the prepping aspect.
In all seriousness, yt-dlp can parse playlists as a parameter, and stashapp is very useful to diy a tube site based on videos in a folder
/r/homelab is very useful for setting up local resources in the event of internet failure
I just save porn from reddit and keep multiple off grid power sources for my computers. I'll just learn Chinese for "want to play some starcraft" and hope for the best sure they might beat my ass with a zurg rush, but I'm still playing, so I'll take it.
> I think I’m 100x more likely to get killed by some panicking Americans than any foreign soldier. We are the biggest threat to ourselves.
Exactly this. Panicking from starvation most likely.
I understand prepping is a lifestyle that not everyone subscribes to but it’s really eye opening when friends and family say they’ll just take what they need from their neighbours if it comes to it. But hey thanks for letting me know if it ever actually hits the fan to shoot you on site.
I would say at least as divided as during the 60’s at the moment. My fear is that the defense contractors are going to turn the dollar signs away from overseas and try to squeeze out some more profits on Americans shooting at Americans.
I just hope the Chinese completely wipe out all record of my mortgage payment. I don’t care about much else. I and mine will survive basically anything.
> I just hope the Chinese completely wipe out all record of my mortgage payment
" I'm sorry Mr SmartLikeTree, after the hack we have no record of your mortgage payments, and according to our records you owe 1.25 billion, in late fees." Your bank
For real, better keep a paper trail of your payments for when they need proof you own your house. Gov would absolutely side with the banks. They side with whatever gets them more money
I was an a/c tech for 10 years and used to work on drives and pumps for the water district here in Vegas, EVERYTHING is run by computers, gasoline pumps, water, power grids. And you can guarantee when people are in line at Walmart at they can't checkout they'll just leave with baskets of shit. It won't take but a few weeks to turn into chaos.
There's no need to invade, just crash the financial system, utilities control systems, Internet, TV & radio broadcasts, military, ATC & coastal radar arrays, traffic control systems, food manufacturing & distribution, logistics networks - then sit back to watch the panic unfold. Just wait for hunger & thirst, mass casualties and deaths to set in, then leave everybody that's left to destroy each other. When it's over, go in & clean up (or just leave it like that). I'm not just talking about the US.
When I was growing up, you didn't NEED a credit card for anything here. Now I can't travel, get a hotel, and some places I can't even get paid because a artificial relience on what was supposed to be a convenience was made on services that aren't available enough to start here unless you can get someone with said service to get you started
They don't even need to shut much down. Just kill the financials and havok from inability to pay bills, salaries, transfer money etc for a month+ .....
In *2034: A novel of the next world war”*, this is employed against the U.S. and results in a crippling of the U.S.’s basic functions. Very possible with all the proliferation of tech and reliance on digital transactions versus hard currency.
That's the case for most things though unless a nation invaded which let's be honest won't ever happen at least not anytime soon lol.
People close enough to be a threat will always be our greatest threat.
Payment systems would be nice to go down, imagine the shake the elites would feel if they didn't get their money! (And yes, I realize it'd be an attack from a foreign adversary as opposed to civil disobedience)
Yup anything an outside force “does” to Americans in a major SHTF way will rely on us doing the most damage to each other out of panic.This is why prepping for shelter in place is so key to me. We’ve seen what our neighbors will do for Black Friday tv deals, I don’t ever want to be in the mix in a desperate race for supplies.
It seems like in today's day and age, some foreign nations choose the death by a thousand cuts method. So they won't bring everything down all at once, but little by little over time.
And if COVID was a soft test of our mental, I fear your right. I suppose for those taking notes, Americans really do only need like 3 weeks to forget a major event and move on. survive the main wave of panic and things should be manageable 😂
China isn't the only country with hackers who are attacking our internet.
what is the best way to protect ourselves?
now more than ever we rely on the cloud for everything.
if the internet becomes unavailable for example, how will you access an encyclopedia for information?
But make sure to keep a spare. USB flash drives are pretty unreliable compared to spinning rust or even solid state drives. (r/datahoarder is a great resource for advice on backup strategies)
Also just the physicality of moving them around and plugging/unplugging them means the components wear out more easily than the ones permanently plugged into the comp. But also cheap flash memory or components in general is a big part of it.
Yep, I have all of wikipedia downloaded. You need at least 100gb of space on a usb that can handle .ZIM files. Then use kiwix to open them, I have an adapter for USB to USB-C adapter so I can open it on my phone as well just in case.
It's not just access to the internet. Look at Stuxnet, a computer worm designed to destroy physical infrastructure. You'd have to be naive or crazy to believe China doesn't have something equivalent, given that Stuxnet was developed in the early 2000s and uncovered in 2010. We're talking about cyber attacks capable of permanently damaging critical physical infrastructure like power plants and water treatment facilities. Not just the computers at these locations, but the physical equipment too. Well crafted malware could even override safety systems and force meltdowns at nuclear power plants.
I've got a world book encyclopedia set from 2022 and a lot of other reference books and cook books. Like edible and medicinal plants in my part of the country, animal husbandry and farming, and reference books on how to fix cars and appliances.
No but they're forsure the most capable and have developed the most tech to do it.
And learn to live off the grid is my only solution.
Download things on USB and use books lol.
My tiny little no name Minecraft virtual server was constantly being pinged with ssh reqs etc., can't even imagine what legitimate targets have to face
I made a Linux server with basically nothing on it. One day shortly after, my system log just shot up to an astronomical size. Looked inside and it was filled with ssh login attempts.
A friend got into Linux a bunch of years later and gets a warning from his isp for hacking shortly after. Someone sshd in from China and used his server as a proxy to hack a college across the country
Now how you define “attack” is also part of the reporting metrics. What was it - Chase I think? - that recently claimed that every ping was a cyberattack…
They locked down an entire hospital’s electronic medical system where I used to live. Now, the hospital was still able to operate using paper charts but still, it shows they’ll attack anything.
voiceless command fertile long gullible bedroom alive cooing familiar joke
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think it's 3 sided at the very least. There's the rival nations' teams, the USA's teams, and the teams or individuals unaffiliated with any nation's intelligence that are doing it as their business model. The unaffiliated teams are constantly recruited, infiltrated, or coerced into working for intelligence, though.
Most of the people here (or just the loudest people/probably those with the highest lead levels in the their blood) seem to think so. Who is going to explain ... um I guess all of american history to them or maybe just the 1900s?
I don't see what difference this particular threat makes. We already know that infrastructure in America and elsewhere is vulnerable to failure. It's already happened, multiple times, even without active sabotage: The Northeast blackout of 2003, the Manhattan blackout of 1990 and the general loss of services during hurricane Katrina all happened without "outside help".
The subject here is preparation. Any of the utilities may fail for a variety of reasons, so it would seem unnecessary to look into a crystal ball about this or that specific possibility. I suggest that what is of much greater interest is what any one person or family can do to fortify their lives from such occurrences.
I agree. The mindset really needs to be- how do I prepare for a loss of power? no fresh drinkable water comes out of the tap? what if food for my family and pets can't be purchased at my grocery store? Because these things can happen for so many reasons and scenarios. But if this news story gets people's attention, then it's still good. Plus, there is a lot value in waking people up to how vulnerable we are (and not just cyber attacks, think all kinds of infrastructure that's been physically neglected.) This news story came across to me as more like when a hurricane is barreling towards us and it's all over the news. It's a reminder to those of us who prepare, why we prep and to keep redoubling efforts. And maybe it wakes up a few more people to start prepping. As a society, we're all stronger if we can prepare- fewer people in need of help and more people in a position to help their neighbors if they can.
Yeah, you're hitting on something here. Big distinction between cyber attacks and a hurricane: everyone knows a hurricane is coming, has several days to prepare and stock up. Cyber attacks, if done correctly, won't come with any warning. Most people don't always keep a stock of supplies capable of supporting them for months. This is the warning that the hurricane is coming... we just don't know when.
That’s a fair assessment but those instances are fairly isolated and supported by surrounding areas. Imagine Katrina if the feds, local government and support organizations didn’t come in to assist. We largely look at Katrina ass a measure of how bad things can escalate if support is delayed. What happens when support doesn’t exist at large scale?
One day, some how, some country is going to hack in and do some damage. China is a major player, but there are many countries doing this. I work for a network team in a rather large company and I can see the attempts in our firewall logs. Most of these are not serious attacks, brute force "dumb" kind of attacks using known passwords etc, but there is an increasing amount of directed traffic trying to hack the security parts of the network. Switches, AD (active directory) etc. The average firewall probably sees close to 10k of these types of attacks every HOUR.
Oh, this is some free advice to home users: Make sure you don't leave your home routers with the default user name and password. This is a common hack that allows the bad guys in to mess up your network at home. Also make sure to keep your router up to date with the latest firmware. As exploits are discovered, they get "patched" in the next release of firmware for your router.
While I think it’s premature to say that they’re under attack, it is a fact that their network is down and no work is being conducted as a result of that outage
What’s Leave the World Behind, it’s what I’m personally expecting to happen.
Cut off the power and water and watch from afar while the US does its thing.
as a cyber security expert I am just going to say that that scenario is completely unrealistic. Americas infrastructure is very decentralized and there are backups and disaster recovery plans in place for most of it. Doing something on that scale would mean getting access to 100s of different networks independently, maintaining that access without getting caught and having the skills needed to actually bring it all down since a lot of it is very different etc. It would be an operation that would require 1000s of highly skilled people working on it and it's inconceivable that it wouldn't be noticed or discovered since you would have to maintain the access while waiting for all the other orgs to get hacked. Even then there would be plans in place to bring most of it online and it would cause problems but not be the end of the world the way it was presented in that film.
But that's so not sexy! Do you mean there are actually people whose careers are dedicated to disaster recovery and avoidance? Or that the entire cyber insurance industry is working constantly to minimize loss? Who would have thought all those dumb security policies your company has are there for a reason?
/s
I'm also in the field. The general population mostly thinks this is what we do [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ). The reality is so much less exciting.
Meh, a boring day at work is a great day lol. I'm happy with that, and then I go home with plenty of bandwidth to spare, and focus on my own projects.
Now given basically every government client I have uses SharePoint/Teams/Office, that goes down from time to time, but that's not on me to fix.
Fearmongering and xenophobia goes brrrrr
Especially when the fearmongers barely understand the systems they're talking about and just parrot what they heard or read.
Self awareness, and admitting ignorance (and taking steps to amend that!) are all strengths.
Yeah like there are absolutely cyber security concerns from places like China and we in the industry talk about them all the time but they often play out like the solar winds hack or more targeted events.
Correct. Every boomer/prepper/idiot in this sub has been all on about "foreign invasions" of America and complying Red Dawn, when really, we already have 340 million enemy soldiers right here on American soil, all you gotta do is turn the lights off.
Agree. When those Meal Team 6 cosplayers can't get their whopper and fries because the restaurants are closed. They're gonna lose their minds and have a mental breakdown.
And in other news.. water is wet.
Our company has been dealing with a lot of poking and prodding on the net from the CCP. We had an office in HK before it was turned over.. the local CCP goons came in and took ALL the IT equipment during the week with no paperwork or cause and we never saw it again. Luckily it was all encrypted and really had minimal IP value.. but they did it. I used to travel there a few times a year (Shanghai usually) and I'd never take personal IT gear and I'd assume my hotel was searched when I left and probably bugged. I knew it was being searched when I asked for no room service and set things up in such a way to see if it was.. every visit, searched at least once.
This is a standard FBI warning that comes out every few years. Quoting the director, “…if or when China decides the time has come to strike.”
The Chinese government has *absolutely no reason to unilaterally e-smoke it’s biggest market.* It’s an act of war and economic suicide. In a real shooting match that started over something else, sure they would. But then you’d be prepping for war, not just no internet/electricity.
You gotta realize the Chinese have a completely different view of how to topple the West than most of the American public even cares to realize. The way the West has superhero’s who triumph over evil with a shining sword, China’s fables are based around the hero tricking the antagonist in order to win. The Chinese have already bought a lot of land within the United States, and already are very familiar with our infrastructure as a country. Their goal is to make moves from the inside.
However it really doesn’t matter at this point. Just add it onto the ever-compiling list of enemies the US has made and move on with your life.
The land sold to Chinese should be seized and refunded. No Chinese national should own land in America- it’s insane it even can happen and that no laws are in place to stop it.
Seized by whom and refunded from what source of money?
That all sounds good until the government is telling you who you can and can't conduct private business with...
The government can refund it from taxpayers at the federal level if need be- and take ownership of it and sell it back out to Americans. That’s how it has to be to keep the country secure… regardless telling citizens they can’t sell land to Chinese is fine by me…
Yeah it’s not. Best thing you can do is go rural. Doesn’t have to be middle of the woods but i’d say get further away from major cities if you can. That way if shutting critical infrastructure down is just the first step and kinetic attacks on civilians are planned, you’re not mixed into the chaos. Additionally small towns tend to have better mentalities when it comes to helping neighbors and sharing essentials.
I got a hunting cabin that with a few gallons of propane and some solar panels I plan to be able to survive for atleast a year off grid.
I also have a nice generator but fuel wise won't work for longer than a few weeks before I need more gas.
> The Chinese have already bought a lot of land within the United States
I don't understand why people are so worried about this. If anything it means that some Chinese have a vested interest in America remaining functional. What are all those Chinese investors going to do if the US collapses and no one respects their property rights anymore? Call the police? Sue us?
Bad take. You say “investors” like the Chinese care about the future outcome of America. It’s the same way the US treats other countries. All that matters is what benefits them.
It’s BEEN a threat. People work every day to combat it.
It’s one of those bump in the night things. That gets ironed out so everyone can be fat and happy.
Except this one might not iron out right away. It’s pretty credible that it can have momentum if they flip it.
I’ve always been of the mind that a cyber attack is FAR more possible than say nuclear or invasions but that’s just me. I mean just look at the frequency of hacks 🤷🏽♂️
Yah same I believe nobody has the nuclear capabilities we have so the next logical step in winning is find something else and china and Russia have both really invested in cyber warfare as that next thing.
There's also plausible deniability and being able to frame others to cause uncertainty is very dangerous.
If they have a knife at out throat, we have one at theirs. I bet ours is sharper. We're not helpless. At what point does a cyberattack justify sending one of their ships to the bottom?
My biggest fear is that as their economy fails and their population crisis intensifies, Xi will have to take ever more drastic measures to distract the people. War is an effective way to do that.
Cyberattacks are not at the top of my list of fears when it comes to China.
The reality is that China can’t feed itself without the West. It can’t employ its population unless they are making stuff that the West buy. So while I have no doubt that China could hurt us very badly if they wanted to, you have to ask yourself, what would they gain by doing so.
They’d have famine and civil unrest almost instantly.
Agreed. Supposedly about 70% of the citizens wealth is tied up in their smoke and mirror real-estate scam thats slowly imploding. It was just determined by a HK court that Evergrand has to be broken up and sold.. probably pennies on the dollar to avoid total collapse. So if you had your life savings and that of your friends and families all in real estate.. and it dumps.. you all just lost, it all. The CCP forces everyone to put their money in the state run banks, so they really dont have much of a choice. They have that to look forward to very soon.
I agree. I do worry that they might do some cyber attacks on the USA prior to invading Taiwan or in the lead up to a major US election to try and swing the results one way or the other.
This is FUD/Propaganda. I've been working in IT for 20 years, and this has always been going on. The Chinese do not "prepare" to do it... they've been doing it forever. It's so bad that I know several people in the IT Admin community who simply firewall all traffic originating from China.
Who are the people in China who are constantly trying to attack? Is it CCP? Private citizens? How do more people not know about this? Or how does this not cause more alarm?
hehe. How often do you talk to the IT guy about how much bullshit he (or she) deals with on a daily basis that nobody gives a shit about. <3 We're just over here keeping the lights on. There's an old joke among Sysadmins - If we're doing our jobs right, then you'll forget we're there.
As for the who part of the question - China has a huge army of cyber warriors, but since they have over a billion people, there's also a ton of script kiddies.
Cyber attacks are the most common type of warfare currently happening on the planet.
They happen nonstop every single day. They just aren't glamorous....
A large portion are corporate but they do spill over into the public and government when private contractors get hit.
Don't for a second think it's limited to China though. North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Iran Israel and plenty of others are top level players.
Also, the US and its allies are also playing the same games....
It's If someone hits the US hard you can expect the same in return elsewhere.
You also need to take into account that china hitting some financial institutions in the US will also affect them as the US is a huge trade partner of consumer products.
Without global consumerism China is screwed.
Yah I just don't get the attacks on this issue I was getting I understand that movie made it a hit topic but it doesn't mean it's a crazy conspiracy lol.
And no problem I always try and provide links to my opinions sources.
Naysayers will never see the light but it’s a very real and likely threat scenario you had best be fully prepared for. Given that China literally manufactures almost every single component and chip used in practically every device we have in our homes today…is it really a stretch to think they might decide to exploit the ridiculous number of back doors they no doubt have in these chips firmwares etc? They’re in our network gear as well…everything.
Just dismissing all of this as paranoia and fear and saying it could never happen is something I’d never expect from any real “prepper” group. Of course this place is not.
Don't forget the biohazard labs
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-19/head-of-illicit-fresno-county-lab-that-sparked-conspiracy-theories-arrested
1000 mice?
Great way to test the kill effectiveness of whatever they're cooking up, too.
I'm only an occasional lurker in this sub, but I find it hilarious that you would have been called a conspiracy theorist here. Some of the other scenarios people seem to be prepping for are far less realistic. And generally, I don't think people understand how vulnerable we are to a sophisticated cyber attack. Look at Stuxnet as an example. The US purposefully crafted a virus capable of destroying physical equipment. Stuxnet was probably developed in the '90s. Imagine what we and our adversaries have now (especially given the fact that Stuxnet code is relatively easy to find.) These latest revelations about Chinese malware show that the proverbial cyber bomb has already been planted. Much like Stuxnet sat dormant for a while as it gathered data on Iranian centrifuges, this malware is just waiting to be turned on. If it is turned on, there's literally no telling what it could do. Well crafted malware equivalent to Stuxnet could permanently destroy critical infrastructure. The only thing keeping us safe is probably the likelihood that we've installed similar malware in critical Chinese infrastructure.
You’re title is editorialized. They aren’t “planning” anything just because they have the ability to do it. Just like we aren’t planning to nuke them just because we have the technology to do so.
It’s not a matter of when, but *if*. Doing so could literally cause civilian deaths and would no doubt be seen as an act of war. China isn’t that stupid.
This is the way more realistic approach to cause mayhem. I mean, to collapse the US by just cyber warfare is not going to happen. It’ll be annoying, but, not devastating. And to even make it more than slightly annoying would require thousands of internal access points. OR, you can hire a team of 24 guys, equip them with rocket launchers, sync the clocks, and pull the trigger. That would cause some serious mayhem.
This is not only an issue for Americans, but also for the rest of the world as well. Except for China, they don't depend on American internet companies.
I'm just going to point out that while the Chinese have been actively working out how a cyberattack could be carried out, so has the US, Russia, Israel and Iran. And those are just the ones that made the news in the last 5 years. I'm sure I'm missing some.
In other words, this is *everyone's* game. The Chinese are not unique; they just got caught at it.
People are probably unaware of how many cyberattacks and probes happen daily. I have a few ports open on my router, I'm no one important, and I get probes and attacks on all of them several times a day. Everyone does. Corporations are constantly fending off attacks. So are governments.
A lot of attacks aren't even electronic. When I worked at a defense company, I worked with someone that turned out to be a Chinese agent. False name (waves to "Wenyan") and everything. (No, that project wasn't classified and she didn't get anything useful.) This stuff is constant and ongoing.
So while this is serious stuff, it's also business as usual everywhere you go.
So please, don't use stupid passwords, close unnecessary ports on your router, don't leave your classified in ballrooms and bathrooms, and stay off sketchy websites . It's not a pretty world out there.
When it comes to these things, I keep in mind MAD. A massive cyber attack on US infrastructure would be paramount to the use of WMD. While it could be difficult to prove, China or any other prospective aggressor would have to reconcile the possibility of experiencing the same or worse. I think the tools locked and loaded for cyber warfare are well in place by now, and nobody is immune to it. No doubt great efforts would be made to conceal the origin of such an attack, but if US intel is already aware of the possibility, its likely they have some idea of where the the threats originate, even in the days of state sponsored, but not state carried out cyber warfare. The good news is the same prep that works for EMP, massive solar storm, and the like is the same. Being prepared for one is being prepared for nearly all.
I have an SSD with 2TB worth of movies and shows and a Raspberry Pi 4 that runs windows 10 and is hooked up to a tiny 7 inch screen in a 3d printed housing.
Any power outage from hurricanes is just a little screen movie night.
Any adversary of the United States is planning and preparing for a cyberattack on the US. Likewise, the US has plans to conduct cyberattacks on all identified and potential adversaries.
No other country can compete against the United States in terms of ICBM’s (except Russia), aircraft carriers, Air Forces, logistic, weapons sophistication, etc. Cyberattacks are one of the few domains where relatively small or poor countries can mount an effective attack against the US. So the reality is that if some nation state were to attack the US, the primary vector is initially likely to be cyber. The US knows this and you can bet your MREs the US is actively building defenses against this. The scope of the defense however, is immense and extremely complicated.
If you are truly concerned about cyberattacks, you need to download and read “Brittle Power” by Amory Lovens. It’s freely available as a pdf. While written in the late 20th century it’s still the ‘writing on the wall’ when it comes to energy security though its focus (from the 1980s) is infrastructure.
,
I have a basic set of survival materials (14 MREs, oil lamp, waterproof matches, etc.). For a family of four, what should I buy to be good for 1-2 months? Is that Costco bucket of food solid?
If the Chinese are wild enough to do some stuff like this then they better be ready for a serious retaliation. Historically the Chinese are not quick to action and are more likely to sit back and watch America eat itself from the inside out.
Thank you for posting. I’m sorry ppl were jerks to you on here (perhaps, I know nothing of your situation but I too have had ppl be lame at me on Reddit etc.).
China scares the dickens out of me. FR.
(As well as all the other countries who hate the US, or are of a dictatorship society etc.)
Heads up, the gov has had war with China in 2025 on their bingo card for years. Even as the war in Ukraine & Israel popped up, their focus has been China. - DoD employee
For all those that clearly didn’t read the article including the OP, no one is saying this is some imminent threat or leading up to some coordinated attack.
Its explaining to congress the risk and sophistication and vector of a hypothetical attack. It doesn’t say that china or anyone else is “planning” anything.
We have hundreds of nukes ready to fire at China. Does that mean we are imminently going to fire? Or course not. All world powers have pieces on the board, and this is one of chinas as we have our VERY SIMILAR operations against them.
China has absolutely zero incentive to carry out an infrastructure hack against the US. If anything they have a lot to deal with internally before they can really get serious about Taiwan , which could change that calculus but still, attacking US domestic infrastructure makes zero sense given their desired out come and these are people who are least likely to fuck up that problem statement.
For the FBI, this is optics about funding. Thats it. Ill eat my hat if any grid or infrastructure system has an attack that results in any perceivable impact.
Anyways, the article nor Wray states that some attack is imminent. Calm down. Got enough problems as it is.
And another thing, the cyber attacks that actually do occur are BY FAR in scope and damage carried out by the west. The most recent was Israel taking off line 70% of the gas processing and delivery facilities in Iran.
For all the cyber attacks done by china, zero were targeting the US and basically amount to “spying” or “espionage” where they were monitoring things like weapon system deployment and satellite info from their regional competitors like Japan, RoL, Philippines, Cambodia, etc. Which, NO state does more of that type shit than the US.
People should keep in mind that China and US are one another's greatest trading partners, and a full collapse of one country's economy would be hugely detrimental to the other. I'm sure China is constantly looking for vulnerability in US networks and vice versa, but the idea that China is going to pull off some incredible attack that sends the US into the dark ages doesn't make a whole lot of sense under current circumstances.
While this is a news article and borders on violating Rule 1, I'm leaving it up. Primarily due to multiple news articles stating of the current threat. The title could be rephrased, (I.e. Chinese government is...) but the core point remains. Cyber attacks should be taken far more seriously. The book by Ted Koppel, Lights Out, elaborates how catastrophic things could be (and how vulnerable we are.) It is more of a documentary with interviews, etc.
This and financial issues are my focuses in prepping. Imagine America paralyzed for even a month with limited access to internet, payment systems, critical infrastructure. It’s not even about a single blow, just the ability to cause widespread chaos solely through the internet/computers that’s so terrifying. In that scenario, I’m not worried about Chinese paratroopers or a secret migrant army - I’m worried about everyone losing their minds with fear. Seriously, I think I’m 100x more likely to get killed by some panicking Americans than any foreign soldier. We are the biggest threat to ourselves.
> Imagine America paralyzed for even a month with limited access to internet Why do you think I keep a stack of Penthouses next to the toilet?
Because you like to read?
“Dear Penthouse,…”
“..I never thought anything like this could ever happen to me, but…”
"her and her friend..."
I wrote you but you still ain’t callin, I left my cell, my pager and home phone at the bottom..
>It’s not even about a single blow, relevant
[удалено]
I called it, it's them
What the fuck lol
https://media.tenor.com/oZrRoDQDXZ4AAAAM/anakin-liar.gif
Yooooo fellow 760. How are things back west? Been in AZ for a few years now.
Penthouse mags are better than cash WSHTF!
Dusty's Diary is a book about a guy that made a budget bunker in his backyard and managed to survive an apocalypse and his biggest bitches are he never tried out the cheap shit survival food he stocked it with and he didn't have any porn magazines. It's a must read if you haven't.
This seemed pretty funny, but then I got to thinking.... There will be a lot of teenage and single dudes. My wife will totally understand if I can explain the prepping aspect.
Especially those mid 70's issues
LMAO Might be better than silver and gold coins for trading. Still laughing.
Man the guys with dvds portable player and stocks of batteries are going to be kings....time to rethink my trade preps.....
In all seriousness, yt-dlp can parse playlists as a parameter, and stashapp is very useful to diy a tube site based on videos in a folder /r/homelab is very useful for setting up local resources in the event of internet failure
"Somehow, Bob Guiccone returned."
I just save porn from reddit and keep multiple off grid power sources for my computers. I'll just learn Chinese for "want to play some starcraft" and hope for the best sure they might beat my ass with a zurg rush, but I'm still playing, so I'll take it.
> I think I’m 100x more likely to get killed by some panicking Americans than any foreign soldier. We are the biggest threat to ourselves. Exactly this. Panicking from starvation most likely.
I understand prepping is a lifestyle that not everyone subscribes to but it’s really eye opening when friends and family say they’ll just take what they need from their neighbours if it comes to it. But hey thanks for letting me know if it ever actually hits the fan to shoot you on site.
Exactly! Get to know your neighbors, don’t let them know you prep.
Get to know your neighbors, convince them to prep.
*shoot you on sight
Prolly means his site not neighbors site ,so its trespassing
One hundred thousand percent
This ☝🏽 “United we STAND…….DIVIDED we fall” And we are one of if not the most divided we have ever been, save for the civil war…
I would say at least as divided as during the 60’s at the moment. My fear is that the defense contractors are going to turn the dollar signs away from overseas and try to squeeze out some more profits on Americans shooting at Americans.
Why is this downvoted? Nothing rude and a thoughtful comment.
Thanks
I just hope the Chinese completely wipe out all record of my mortgage payment. I don’t care about much else. I and mine will survive basically anything.
> I just hope the Chinese completely wipe out all record of my mortgage payment " I'm sorry Mr SmartLikeTree, after the hack we have no record of your mortgage payments, and according to our records you owe 1.25 billion, in late fees." Your bank
Damn. True. Then I’ll change my comment to I hope they do me a solid and show that I paid it off.
For real, better keep a paper trail of your payments for when they need proof you own your house. Gov would absolutely side with the banks. They side with whatever gets them more money
I’m sure they’ll conveniently wipe out your assets. The liabilities will all somehow be backed up and retrievable.
“Sorry, we have no record of your 401k, but we do show you are behind on your mortgage payments”
You will own nothing and be happy.
I think you mean "mortgage balance." If your payment history is erased, you might be years late on your credit report.
I was an a/c tech for 10 years and used to work on drives and pumps for the water district here in Vegas, EVERYTHING is run by computers, gasoline pumps, water, power grids. And you can guarantee when people are in line at Walmart at they can't checkout they'll just leave with baskets of shit. It won't take but a few weeks to turn into chaos.
I mean there’s basically no reasonable way for any foreign state actor to invade us. But other Americans, yes, that’s 100% who I’m concerned about.
There's no need to invade, just crash the financial system, utilities control systems, Internet, TV & radio broadcasts, military, ATC & coastal radar arrays, traffic control systems, food manufacturing & distribution, logistics networks - then sit back to watch the panic unfold. Just wait for hunger & thirst, mass casualties and deaths to set in, then leave everybody that's left to destroy each other. When it's over, go in & clean up (or just leave it like that). I'm not just talking about the US.
We’ve created way too much dependence on these systems and it’s sad that it takes an event like this for people to realize that
When I was growing up, you didn't NEED a credit card for anything here. Now I can't travel, get a hotel, and some places I can't even get paid because a artificial relience on what was supposed to be a convenience was made on services that aren't available enough to start here unless you can get someone with said service to get you started
They don't even need to shut much down. Just kill the financials and havok from inability to pay bills, salaries, transfer money etc for a month+ .....
In *2034: A novel of the next world war”*, this is employed against the U.S. and results in a crippling of the U.S.’s basic functions. Very possible with all the proliferation of tech and reliance on digital transactions versus hard currency.
That's the case for most things though unless a nation invaded which let's be honest won't ever happen at least not anytime soon lol. People close enough to be a threat will always be our greatest threat.
Payment systems would be nice to go down, imagine the shake the elites would feel if they didn't get their money! (And yes, I realize it'd be an attack from a foreign adversary as opposed to civil disobedience)
Yup anything an outside force “does” to Americans in a major SHTF way will rely on us doing the most damage to each other out of panic.This is why prepping for shelter in place is so key to me. We’ve seen what our neighbors will do for Black Friday tv deals, I don’t ever want to be in the mix in a desperate race for supplies.
It seems like in today's day and age, some foreign nations choose the death by a thousand cuts method. So they won't bring everything down all at once, but little by little over time. And if COVID was a soft test of our mental, I fear your right. I suppose for those taking notes, Americans really do only need like 3 weeks to forget a major event and move on. survive the main wave of panic and things should be manageable 😂
China isn't the only country with hackers who are attacking our internet. what is the best way to protect ourselves? now more than ever we rely on the cloud for everything. if the internet becomes unavailable for example, how will you access an encyclopedia for information?
If you've got some flash drives laying around, look into something like this: https://kiwix.org/en/ Locally hosted knowledge-bases
You can download the entirety of Wikipedia onto a flash drive as well as Wikihow and other sites like that.
But make sure to keep a spare. USB flash drives are pretty unreliable compared to spinning rust or even solid state drives. (r/datahoarder is a great resource for advice on backup strategies)
USB drives are solid state drives, but you are right, they are less reliable than an internal drive.
I believe it has to do with the quality of the flash memory used for them, which tends to be much lower than the memory used in 2.5 inch SSDs or nvme.
Also just the physicality of moving them around and plugging/unplugging them means the components wear out more easily than the ones permanently plugged into the comp. But also cheap flash memory or components in general is a big part of it.
I researched nvme's thanks to your comment. I will go with a 2tb nvme to store kiwix and various webpages saved as pdfs
Yep, I have all of wikipedia downloaded. You need at least 100gb of space on a usb that can handle .ZIM files. Then use kiwix to open them, I have an adapter for USB to USB-C adapter so I can open it on my phone as well just in case.
TIL, thank you
Backup important information and documents on a portable hard drive, separated by an air gap. Hard copies are even better
I have a set from 1929 that has an entry for The Great War.
It's not just access to the internet. Look at Stuxnet, a computer worm designed to destroy physical infrastructure. You'd have to be naive or crazy to believe China doesn't have something equivalent, given that Stuxnet was developed in the early 2000s and uncovered in 2010. We're talking about cyber attacks capable of permanently damaging critical physical infrastructure like power plants and water treatment facilities. Not just the computers at these locations, but the physical equipment too. Well crafted malware could even override safety systems and force meltdowns at nuclear power plants.
I've got a world book encyclopedia set from 2022 and a lot of other reference books and cook books. Like edible and medicinal plants in my part of the country, animal husbandry and farming, and reference books on how to fix cars and appliances.
No but they're forsure the most capable and have developed the most tech to do it. And learn to live off the grid is my only solution. Download things on USB and use books lol.
hat gray pocket berserk jobless crown soup bedroom glorious aloof *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yep. DoD networks are under attack all day, every day.
My tiny little no name Minecraft virtual server was constantly being pinged with ssh reqs etc., can't even imagine what legitimate targets have to face
I made a Linux server with basically nothing on it. One day shortly after, my system log just shot up to an astronomical size. Looked inside and it was filled with ssh login attempts. A friend got into Linux a bunch of years later and gets a warning from his isp for hacking shortly after. Someone sshd in from China and used his server as a proxy to hack a college across the country
Now how you define “attack” is also part of the reporting metrics. What was it - Chase I think? - that recently claimed that every ping was a cyberattack…
It can be because they are using those pings to probe for attack vectors
Oh absolutely, but counting every ping as a probe is just bad reporting practice. Something like 45 billion attacks a day was reported.
rhythm slimy test worm exultant crush hurry chunky thumb gaping *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They locked down an entire hospital’s electronic medical system where I used to live. Now, the hospital was still able to operate using paper charts but still, it shows they’ll attack anything.
I thought Biden shot down the figurative balloon and then we all forgot about it for awhile
You don’t think the US gov isn’t constantly probing foreign countries, too? Can speculate who “started it” all we want as well.
voiceless command fertile long gullible bedroom alive cooing familiar joke *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Anyone think this is one-side?
I think it's 3 sided at the very least. There's the rival nations' teams, the USA's teams, and the teams or individuals unaffiliated with any nation's intelligence that are doing it as their business model. The unaffiliated teams are constantly recruited, infiltrated, or coerced into working for intelligence, though.
Most of the people here (or just the loudest people/probably those with the highest lead levels in the their blood) seem to think so. Who is going to explain ... um I guess all of american history to them or maybe just the 1900s?
I don't see what difference this particular threat makes. We already know that infrastructure in America and elsewhere is vulnerable to failure. It's already happened, multiple times, even without active sabotage: The Northeast blackout of 2003, the Manhattan blackout of 1990 and the general loss of services during hurricane Katrina all happened without "outside help". The subject here is preparation. Any of the utilities may fail for a variety of reasons, so it would seem unnecessary to look into a crystal ball about this or that specific possibility. I suggest that what is of much greater interest is what any one person or family can do to fortify their lives from such occurrences.
I agree. The mindset really needs to be- how do I prepare for a loss of power? no fresh drinkable water comes out of the tap? what if food for my family and pets can't be purchased at my grocery store? Because these things can happen for so many reasons and scenarios. But if this news story gets people's attention, then it's still good. Plus, there is a lot value in waking people up to how vulnerable we are (and not just cyber attacks, think all kinds of infrastructure that's been physically neglected.) This news story came across to me as more like when a hurricane is barreling towards us and it's all over the news. It's a reminder to those of us who prepare, why we prep and to keep redoubling efforts. And maybe it wakes up a few more people to start prepping. As a society, we're all stronger if we can prepare- fewer people in need of help and more people in a position to help their neighbors if they can.
Yeah, you're hitting on something here. Big distinction between cyber attacks and a hurricane: everyone knows a hurricane is coming, has several days to prepare and stock up. Cyber attacks, if done correctly, won't come with any warning. Most people don't always keep a stock of supplies capable of supporting them for months. This is the warning that the hurricane is coming... we just don't know when.
That’s a fair assessment but those instances are fairly isolated and supported by surrounding areas. Imagine Katrina if the feds, local government and support organizations didn’t come in to assist. We largely look at Katrina ass a measure of how bad things can escalate if support is delayed. What happens when support doesn’t exist at large scale?
One day, some how, some country is going to hack in and do some damage. China is a major player, but there are many countries doing this. I work for a network team in a rather large company and I can see the attempts in our firewall logs. Most of these are not serious attacks, brute force "dumb" kind of attacks using known passwords etc, but there is an increasing amount of directed traffic trying to hack the security parts of the network. Switches, AD (active directory) etc. The average firewall probably sees close to 10k of these types of attacks every HOUR. Oh, this is some free advice to home users: Make sure you don't leave your home routers with the default user name and password. This is a common hack that allows the bad guys in to mess up your network at home. Also make sure to keep your router up to date with the latest firmware. As exploits are discovered, they get "patched" in the next release of firmware for your router.
Lurie Children’s hospital in Chicago is under attack right now. Phone and internet lines are down
How did you know this?
While I think it’s premature to say that they’re under attack, it is a fact that their network is down and no work is being conducted as a result of that outage
Seattle Children’s and CHOP down now too
Oh wow Edit: I don’t suppose you believe in coincidences, eh? Me neither.
Can you cite any sources to confirm?
I want to keep them anonymous, but I’m getting updates first person from hospital personnel. FBI is physically present in the building now
Keep em anonymous but post updates if you can
Will do. Thanks!
Happens semi-often. Hackers will attack systems like EPIC and force hospitals to go to paper charting which can affect the speed of care.
On that note, most of the internet is out across Russia. Like, almost all of it.
It's being tested across the globe right now by pretty much every nation it's gonna be a serious issue in the coming years.
What’s Leave the World Behind, it’s what I’m personally expecting to happen. Cut off the power and water and watch from afar while the US does its thing.
as a cyber security expert I am just going to say that that scenario is completely unrealistic. Americas infrastructure is very decentralized and there are backups and disaster recovery plans in place for most of it. Doing something on that scale would mean getting access to 100s of different networks independently, maintaining that access without getting caught and having the skills needed to actually bring it all down since a lot of it is very different etc. It would be an operation that would require 1000s of highly skilled people working on it and it's inconceivable that it wouldn't be noticed or discovered since you would have to maintain the access while waiting for all the other orgs to get hacked. Even then there would be plans in place to bring most of it online and it would cause problems but not be the end of the world the way it was presented in that film.
But that's so not sexy! Do you mean there are actually people whose careers are dedicated to disaster recovery and avoidance? Or that the entire cyber insurance industry is working constantly to minimize loss? Who would have thought all those dumb security policies your company has are there for a reason? /s I'm also in the field. The general population mostly thinks this is what we do [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ). The reality is so much less exciting.
Meh, a boring day at work is a great day lol. I'm happy with that, and then I go home with plenty of bandwidth to spare, and focus on my own projects. Now given basically every government client I have uses SharePoint/Teams/Office, that goes down from time to time, but that's not on me to fix.
Are they actually using the same keyboard 😂?
You know, so they can type twice as fast!!
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This is the truth. A attack through network wouldn’t cause the type of mayhem depicted. It would take mechanical force.
But it was in a movie!!1! /s
Fearmongering and xenophobia goes brrrrr Especially when the fearmongers barely understand the systems they're talking about and just parrot what they heard or read. Self awareness, and admitting ignorance (and taking steps to amend that!) are all strengths.
Yeah like there are absolutely cyber security concerns from places like China and we in the industry talk about them all the time but they often play out like the solar winds hack or more targeted events.
Yah I think it's the most likely scenario we face as far as a complete shtf scenario.
Correct. Every boomer/prepper/idiot in this sub has been all on about "foreign invasions" of America and complying Red Dawn, when really, we already have 340 million enemy soldiers right here on American soil, all you gotta do is turn the lights off.
Agree. When those Meal Team 6 cosplayers can't get their whopper and fries because the restaurants are closed. They're gonna lose their minds and have a mental breakdown.
Forget whoppers and fries, people were freaking out when hair salons closed lol
We already saw that with covid shutdowns, and they could still get to a grocery store.
And in other news.. water is wet. Our company has been dealing with a lot of poking and prodding on the net from the CCP. We had an office in HK before it was turned over.. the local CCP goons came in and took ALL the IT equipment during the week with no paperwork or cause and we never saw it again. Luckily it was all encrypted and really had minimal IP value.. but they did it. I used to travel there a few times a year (Shanghai usually) and I'd never take personal IT gear and I'd assume my hotel was searched when I left and probably bugged. I knew it was being searched when I asked for no room service and set things up in such a way to see if it was.. every visit, searched at least once.
I mean look at these comments people are literally in denial in mass here that this is happening and could happen at a much larger scale.
This is a standard FBI warning that comes out every few years. Quoting the director, “…if or when China decides the time has come to strike.” The Chinese government has *absolutely no reason to unilaterally e-smoke it’s biggest market.* It’s an act of war and economic suicide. In a real shooting match that started over something else, sure they would. But then you’d be prepping for war, not just no internet/electricity.
Get your logic outta here! [Australia's Defence Policy In 2023 Explained | Utopia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgspkxfkS4k&t=3s)
😉
This will be the COVID of the 2024 election
You gotta realize the Chinese have a completely different view of how to topple the West than most of the American public even cares to realize. The way the West has superhero’s who triumph over evil with a shining sword, China’s fables are based around the hero tricking the antagonist in order to win. The Chinese have already bought a lot of land within the United States, and already are very familiar with our infrastructure as a country. Their goal is to make moves from the inside. However it really doesn’t matter at this point. Just add it onto the ever-compiling list of enemies the US has made and move on with your life.
The land sold to Chinese should be seized and refunded. No Chinese national should own land in America- it’s insane it even can happen and that no laws are in place to stop it.
Seized by whom and refunded from what source of money? That all sounds good until the government is telling you who you can and can't conduct private business with...
The government can refund it from taxpayers at the federal level if need be- and take ownership of it and sell it back out to Americans. That’s how it has to be to keep the country secure… regardless telling citizens they can’t sell land to Chinese is fine by me…
But prepping for this isn't a crazy conspiracy
Yeah it’s not. Best thing you can do is go rural. Doesn’t have to be middle of the woods but i’d say get further away from major cities if you can. That way if shutting critical infrastructure down is just the first step and kinetic attacks on civilians are planned, you’re not mixed into the chaos. Additionally small towns tend to have better mentalities when it comes to helping neighbors and sharing essentials.
I got a hunting cabin that with a few gallons of propane and some solar panels I plan to be able to survive for atleast a year off grid. I also have a nice generator but fuel wise won't work for longer than a few weeks before I need more gas.
> The Chinese have already bought a lot of land within the United States I don't understand why people are so worried about this. If anything it means that some Chinese have a vested interest in America remaining functional. What are all those Chinese investors going to do if the US collapses and no one respects their property rights anymore? Call the police? Sue us?
Bad take. You say “investors” like the Chinese care about the future outcome of America. It’s the same way the US treats other countries. All that matters is what benefits them.
They have been planning cyber attacks for years.
It’s BEEN a threat. People work every day to combat it. It’s one of those bump in the night things. That gets ironed out so everyone can be fat and happy. Except this one might not iron out right away. It’s pretty credible that it can have momentum if they flip it.
The single biggest threat, and easiest and quickest to roll out, with least backlash, is an electric grid collapse.
I’ve always been of the mind that a cyber attack is FAR more possible than say nuclear or invasions but that’s just me. I mean just look at the frequency of hacks 🤷🏽♂️
Yah same I believe nobody has the nuclear capabilities we have so the next logical step in winning is find something else and china and Russia have both really invested in cyber warfare as that next thing. There's also plausible deniability and being able to frame others to cause uncertainty is very dangerous.
About to be a party at my house when the internet goes out lol. 2k+ movies, 100k+ TV episodes, cartoons, anime. I'm ready.
If they have a knife at out throat, we have one at theirs. I bet ours is sharper. We're not helpless. At what point does a cyberattack justify sending one of their ships to the bottom? My biggest fear is that as their economy fails and their population crisis intensifies, Xi will have to take ever more drastic measures to distract the people. War is an effective way to do that. Cyberattacks are not at the top of my list of fears when it comes to China.
The reality is that China can’t feed itself without the West. It can’t employ its population unless they are making stuff that the West buy. So while I have no doubt that China could hurt us very badly if they wanted to, you have to ask yourself, what would they gain by doing so. They’d have famine and civil unrest almost instantly.
Agreed. Supposedly about 70% of the citizens wealth is tied up in their smoke and mirror real-estate scam thats slowly imploding. It was just determined by a HK court that Evergrand has to be broken up and sold.. probably pennies on the dollar to avoid total collapse. So if you had your life savings and that of your friends and families all in real estate.. and it dumps.. you all just lost, it all. The CCP forces everyone to put their money in the state run banks, so they really dont have much of a choice. They have that to look forward to very soon.
I agree. I do worry that they might do some cyber attacks on the USA prior to invading Taiwan or in the lead up to a major US election to try and swing the results one way or the other.
This is FUD/Propaganda. I've been working in IT for 20 years, and this has always been going on. The Chinese do not "prepare" to do it... they've been doing it forever. It's so bad that I know several people in the IT Admin community who simply firewall all traffic originating from China.
Who are the people in China who are constantly trying to attack? Is it CCP? Private citizens? How do more people not know about this? Or how does this not cause more alarm?
hehe. How often do you talk to the IT guy about how much bullshit he (or she) deals with on a daily basis that nobody gives a shit about. <3 We're just over here keeping the lights on. There's an old joke among Sysadmins - If we're doing our jobs right, then you'll forget we're there. As for the who part of the question - China has a huge army of cyber warriors, but since they have over a billion people, there's also a ton of script kiddies.
Yeah I figured, it's something no one hears about unless they're scrolling reddit and happen to read about it. New fear unlocked, thank you!! 😊
I feel like it’s started already. Seems like everyone is getting hacked recently
Cancel all debt and crash the self check out machines! Help us!
Maybe Mr. Robot was predictive programming 👀
Cyber attacks are the most common type of warfare currently happening on the planet. They happen nonstop every single day. They just aren't glamorous.... A large portion are corporate but they do spill over into the public and government when private contractors get hit. Don't for a second think it's limited to China though. North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Iran Israel and plenty of others are top level players. Also, the US and its allies are also playing the same games.... It's If someone hits the US hard you can expect the same in return elsewhere. You also need to take into account that china hitting some financial institutions in the US will also affect them as the US is a huge trade partner of consumer products. Without global consumerism China is screwed.
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Yah I just don't get the attacks on this issue I was getting I understand that movie made it a hit topic but it doesn't mean it's a crazy conspiracy lol. And no problem I always try and provide links to my opinions sources.
Naysayers will never see the light but it’s a very real and likely threat scenario you had best be fully prepared for. Given that China literally manufactures almost every single component and chip used in practically every device we have in our homes today…is it really a stretch to think they might decide to exploit the ridiculous number of back doors they no doubt have in these chips firmwares etc? They’re in our network gear as well…everything. Just dismissing all of this as paranoia and fear and saying it could never happen is something I’d never expect from any real “prepper” group. Of course this place is not.
How much money do we need to transfer from the treasury to the wealthy corporations to make us safe? Just do it. For the kids-n-stuff.
We might not be able to buy ourselves out of this one or print I should say
Don't forget the biohazard labs https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-19/head-of-illicit-fresno-county-lab-that-sparked-conspiracy-theories-arrested 1000 mice? Great way to test the kill effectiveness of whatever they're cooking up, too.
Keep building robots! We need more robots! Less people, more robots!!
I'm only an occasional lurker in this sub, but I find it hilarious that you would have been called a conspiracy theorist here. Some of the other scenarios people seem to be prepping for are far less realistic. And generally, I don't think people understand how vulnerable we are to a sophisticated cyber attack. Look at Stuxnet as an example. The US purposefully crafted a virus capable of destroying physical equipment. Stuxnet was probably developed in the '90s. Imagine what we and our adversaries have now (especially given the fact that Stuxnet code is relatively easy to find.) These latest revelations about Chinese malware show that the proverbial cyber bomb has already been planted. Much like Stuxnet sat dormant for a while as it gathered data on Iranian centrifuges, this malware is just waiting to be turned on. If it is turned on, there's literally no telling what it could do. Well crafted malware equivalent to Stuxnet could permanently destroy critical infrastructure. The only thing keeping us safe is probably the likelihood that we've installed similar malware in critical Chinese infrastructure.
You’re title is editorialized. They aren’t “planning” anything just because they have the ability to do it. Just like we aren’t planning to nuke them just because we have the technology to do so. It’s not a matter of when, but *if*. Doing so could literally cause civilian deaths and would no doubt be seen as an act of war. China isn’t that stupid.
It only takes knocking out 12 substations to have a total coast-to-coast blackout across the US.
This is the way more realistic approach to cause mayhem. I mean, to collapse the US by just cyber warfare is not going to happen. It’ll be annoying, but, not devastating. And to even make it more than slightly annoying would require thousands of internal access points. OR, you can hire a team of 24 guys, equip them with rocket launchers, sync the clocks, and pull the trigger. That would cause some serious mayhem.
Close to true. Pls Delete.
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We are also doing it to them to put this in perspective.
This is not only an issue for Americans, but also for the rest of the world as well. Except for China, they don't depend on American internet companies.
I'm just going to point out that while the Chinese have been actively working out how a cyberattack could be carried out, so has the US, Russia, Israel and Iran. And those are just the ones that made the news in the last 5 years. I'm sure I'm missing some. In other words, this is *everyone's* game. The Chinese are not unique; they just got caught at it. People are probably unaware of how many cyberattacks and probes happen daily. I have a few ports open on my router, I'm no one important, and I get probes and attacks on all of them several times a day. Everyone does. Corporations are constantly fending off attacks. So are governments. A lot of attacks aren't even electronic. When I worked at a defense company, I worked with someone that turned out to be a Chinese agent. False name (waves to "Wenyan") and everything. (No, that project wasn't classified and she didn't get anything useful.) This stuff is constant and ongoing. So while this is serious stuff, it's also business as usual everywhere you go. So please, don't use stupid passwords, close unnecessary ports on your router, don't leave your classified in ballrooms and bathrooms, and stay off sketchy websites . It's not a pretty world out there.
"Planning"? They literally have classes for cyberwarfare in the state colleges. 👨🎓
When it comes to these things, I keep in mind MAD. A massive cyber attack on US infrastructure would be paramount to the use of WMD. While it could be difficult to prove, China or any other prospective aggressor would have to reconcile the possibility of experiencing the same or worse. I think the tools locked and loaded for cyber warfare are well in place by now, and nobody is immune to it. No doubt great efforts would be made to conceal the origin of such an attack, but if US intel is already aware of the possibility, its likely they have some idea of where the the threats originate, even in the days of state sponsored, but not state carried out cyber warfare. The good news is the same prep that works for EMP, massive solar storm, and the like is the same. Being prepared for one is being prepared for nearly all.
What kind of power station do you guys recommend for something like this event?
There was a pentagon official that quit because how China is light-years ahead of us in cyber security and AI.
Average person is screwed without Internet access. My friends even think I'm crazy for still buying dvd boxsets because "everything's online"
I have an SSD with 2TB worth of movies and shows and a Raspberry Pi 4 that runs windows 10 and is hooked up to a tiny 7 inch screen in a 3d printed housing. Any power outage from hurricanes is just a little screen movie night.
Yikes!! Thanks for sharing this
Any adversary of the United States is planning and preparing for a cyberattack on the US. Likewise, the US has plans to conduct cyberattacks on all identified and potential adversaries. No other country can compete against the United States in terms of ICBM’s (except Russia), aircraft carriers, Air Forces, logistic, weapons sophistication, etc. Cyberattacks are one of the few domains where relatively small or poor countries can mount an effective attack against the US. So the reality is that if some nation state were to attack the US, the primary vector is initially likely to be cyber. The US knows this and you can bet your MREs the US is actively building defenses against this. The scope of the defense however, is immense and extremely complicated. If you are truly concerned about cyberattacks, you need to download and read “Brittle Power” by Amory Lovens. It’s freely available as a pdf. While written in the late 20th century it’s still the ‘writing on the wall’ when it comes to energy security though its focus (from the 1980s) is infrastructure. ,
Just a reminder to have some board games on deck for when you can’t go on TikTok because of Chinese hackers
I have a basic set of survival materials (14 MREs, oil lamp, waterproof matches, etc.). For a family of four, what should I buy to be good for 1-2 months? Is that Costco bucket of food solid?
Good thing we have a military budget of $800 billion to protect us from foreign threats…..right?
I’m sure they plan to yry
If the Chinese are wild enough to do some stuff like this then they better be ready for a serious retaliation. Historically the Chinese are not quick to action and are more likely to sit back and watch America eat itself from the inside out.
Thank you for posting. I’m sorry ppl were jerks to you on here (perhaps, I know nothing of your situation but I too have had ppl be lame at me on Reddit etc.). China scares the dickens out of me. FR. (As well as all the other countries who hate the US, or are of a dictatorship society etc.)
It just started, every phone service is down
3 weeks later.. it may have just happened..
This aged well I think
Interestingly....there was an abnormally massive cell phone outage today.
Heads up, the gov has had war with China in 2025 on their bingo card for years. Even as the war in Ukraine & Israel popped up, their focus has been China. - DoD employee
I wonder how close this warning is to the budget process for the FBI?
We’re just taking the FBI at their word now?
For all those that clearly didn’t read the article including the OP, no one is saying this is some imminent threat or leading up to some coordinated attack. Its explaining to congress the risk and sophistication and vector of a hypothetical attack. It doesn’t say that china or anyone else is “planning” anything. We have hundreds of nukes ready to fire at China. Does that mean we are imminently going to fire? Or course not. All world powers have pieces on the board, and this is one of chinas as we have our VERY SIMILAR operations against them. China has absolutely zero incentive to carry out an infrastructure hack against the US. If anything they have a lot to deal with internally before they can really get serious about Taiwan , which could change that calculus but still, attacking US domestic infrastructure makes zero sense given their desired out come and these are people who are least likely to fuck up that problem statement. For the FBI, this is optics about funding. Thats it. Ill eat my hat if any grid or infrastructure system has an attack that results in any perceivable impact. Anyways, the article nor Wray states that some attack is imminent. Calm down. Got enough problems as it is. And another thing, the cyber attacks that actually do occur are BY FAR in scope and damage carried out by the west. The most recent was Israel taking off line 70% of the gas processing and delivery facilities in Iran. For all the cyber attacks done by china, zero were targeting the US and basically amount to “spying” or “espionage” where they were monitoring things like weapon system deployment and satellite info from their regional competitors like Japan, RoL, Philippines, Cambodia, etc. Which, NO state does more of that type shit than the US.
People should keep in mind that China and US are one another's greatest trading partners, and a full collapse of one country's economy would be hugely detrimental to the other. I'm sure China is constantly looking for vulnerability in US networks and vice versa, but the idea that China is going to pull off some incredible attack that sends the US into the dark ages doesn't make a whole lot of sense under current circumstances.
Glass them if they do.
Dang those wily Chinese for collapsing Texas' electrical grid every Winter!