Ted Koppel

It isn't funny, but rather ironic. I read this book by Koppel about Cyberattacks in December, right before things started to come out about the election. As I listen about how Russia might have interfered in the election, I kept coming back to this well explored book.
Koppel has always been an incredible journalist and this is a highly researched book. In short, what happens if a group decides to hack our electrical systems or other systems that are powered by computers and can be remotely accessed. As I was reading it, I kept thinking- yes, this might happen, but what is the likelihood? Then the idea that the Russians hacked the election showed up.
I did find the book dragged just a tiny bit as it kept hammering the same point, but it is hard to state this is a bad book. I think it is worth reading.
I gave this one 4 stars.

I want to thank Blogging for Books for the opportunity to read this book. I received it in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)

I had hoped for more useful suggestions on how to deal with the "eventuality of a debilitating cyber attack on the grid". The first part of the book is establishing that the best experts consider that it is an "eventuality". It's going to happen. He covers, not graphically- that would require a novel- the problems that would result from such a cyber attack: months of no power for large portions of the country. He spoke to those who will have to deal with the problem, and the short form is that they don't know. There is no way to deal with large urban populations who don't have power. They won't have water, food, much less light and communication, and it will be chaos. Some suggest moving them out to the country- but while rural areas seem like they could survive better, they don't have the ability to take those huge numbers of refugees. Basically, what he's saying is that because there is no way to deal with it, those in charge continue to try to prevent it because as unlikely as that is, it's cheaper and easier to think about. That is not going to help. Bottom line, plan now and figure out what you're going to do. Since we're in the range of one gas-tank's worth of driving from Boston, I figure I'll just die. Darn.… (mehr)