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Lights out : a cyberattack, a nation unprepared, surviving the aftermath / Ted Koppel.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Crown Publishers, [2015]Copyright date: ©2015Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 279 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780553419962 (hardcover)
  • 055341996X (hardcover)
  • 9780553419986 (trade pbk.)
  • 0553419986 (trade pbk.)
Subject(s):
Contents:
Part 1: A cyberattack. Warfare 2.0 -- AK-47s and EMPs -- Regulation gridlock -- Attack surfaces -- Guardians of the grid -- What are the odds? -- Preparing the battlefield -- Independent actors -- Part II: A nation unprepared. Step up, step down -- Extra batteries -- State of emergency -- Press six if you've been affected by a disaster -- Part III: Surviving the aftermath. The ark builders -- Some men ARE an island -- Where the buffalo roamed -- The Mormons -- State of Deseret -- Constructive ambiguity -- Solutions -- Summing up -- Epilogue: The virtue of a plan.
Summary: "Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely--and that it would be devastating" and "examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe"--Book jacket.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 363.1193 K83 Available 33111008330173
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this New York Times bestselling investigation, Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the United States is shockingly unprepared.
 
Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before. 

It isn't just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation's three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure--and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors--from "hacktivists" to terrorists--have the capability as well. "It's not a question of if," says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, "it's a question of when." 

And yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid.  The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a battery-powered radio.

In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. Among the nation's estimated three million "preppers," we meet one whose doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. We also see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company - the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?

With urgency and authority, one of our most renowned journalists examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe that is all but inevitable.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-262) and index.

Part 1: A cyberattack. Warfare 2.0 -- AK-47s and EMPs -- Regulation gridlock -- Attack surfaces -- Guardians of the grid -- What are the odds? -- Preparing the battlefield -- Independent actors -- Part II: A nation unprepared. Step up, step down -- Extra batteries -- State of emergency -- Press six if you've been affected by a disaster -- Part III: Surviving the aftermath. The ark builders -- Some men ARE an island -- Where the buffalo roamed -- The Mormons -- State of Deseret -- Constructive ambiguity -- Solutions -- Summing up -- Epilogue: The virtue of a plan.

"Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely--and that it would be devastating" and "examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe"--Book jacket.

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