The popular TV show Revolution is a story about Americans trying to restore society after the power goes off everywhere, leaving the world in complete darkness and without any electrical/ electronic gadgets. The show describes how millions of people died due to collapse of governments and food distribution systems and how the survivors struggle to reconstitute civil order after the world has been put in peril.
While the show may be complete science fiction, it is a well known fact that most science fictions are based on a few hard facts. This leads us to the question whether the lights can truly be turned off.
In the modern day scenario, there are a number of people, governments and societies who are trying to find out various ways and means to leave a county in complete darkness and without any electronic gadgets whatsoever. A recent report on Electric Grid Vulnerability which was released by the Congressional House clearly shows the susceptibility of the electrical systems to cyber attacks. While shutting down the power may not be possible in the long run, any government today is prone to short term power collapses through cyber attacks.
According to the report, numerous utility systems of America are a target of daily cyber attacks which aim to shut down the system completely. The report also mentions that at least one power provider is under a constant state of attack either from cyber attacks or from malware which seek access to internal systems.
However, the report also stated that despite the regular attacks, most of the utilities of America have only complied with the mandatory standards of cyber security and have not implemented any of the voluntary NERC recommendations.
Clearly, the measures being taken are not enough. Our world would be a much safer place if the people responsible would take a serious approach towards cyber crime or we might just have to wake up in the dark one day.
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