FBI Director, Christopher Wray, recently testified before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. His goal was to alert lawmakers to the active threat of Chinese state hackers to the American public.
The biggest takeaway was the alarming revelation that China’s hackers are actively targeting American water treatment facilities, fuel pipelines, and the power grid.
“China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if and when China decides the time has come to strike,” said Mr. Wray.
This news came as a shock to many Americans, who consider the targeting of civilian infrastructure to be outside the bounds of ethical warfare.
“They’re not focused just on political and military targets. We can see from where they position themselves across civilian infrastructure that low blows are just a possibility in the event of a conflict; low blows against civilians are part of China’s plan,” said Mr. Wray.
Fact or Fiction?
To many, this report was immediately reminiscent of the recent Netflix film, Leave the World Behind. The premise of that film involved a foreign cyberattack that took down the power grid for vast parts of the country. Without power, cities quickly devolved into chaos and anarchy.
In light of the FBI’s report, we now have to face the fact that the sensational premise of Leave the World Behind is a possible real-life outcome. As Mr. Wray clarified to the House Select Committee, “And let’s be clear: Cyber threats to our critical infrastructure represent real world threats to our physical safety.”
For those hoping that the FBI has a handle on the situation, the numbers are not in our favor. Christopher Wray believes that “China’s cyber operatives outnumber all FBI agents by at least 50 to 1.”
According to experts, this cyber vulnerability has been decades in the making. Jen Easterly, leader of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency puts it this way:
“Unfortunately, the technology underpinning our critical infrastructure is inherently insecure because of decades of software developers not being held liable for defective technology. That has led to incentives where features and speed to market have been prioritized against security, leading our nation vulnerable to cyber invasion.”
What to Do About It
We don’t need to know exactly what the future holds to anticipate how any hit to our infrastructure would play out – whether from a man-made or natural disaster. Our lives are completely dependent on reliable power, food supply chains, and clean tap water. Take out the power, water, or fuel pipelines needed for supply chains, and things could get bad fast. With a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan on the table, the theoretical chances of conflict between China and the U.S. are at a historic high.
At Failstate, we believe that the best approach to deteriorating global stability is to insulate your family from outside events. You don’t need to rush out and buy a 1-year supply of food, but you should consider ways to decrease your household’s reliance on the outside world in a worst-case scenario.
Having an emergency water purification / filtration plan and high-quality emergency water filters is critical. You should also store at least 1 gallon of water per person per day to last at least two weeks.
Similarly, your plans should include enough food to feed your family for two weeks. Instead of shopping for the best emergency food kits, start by considering the shelf-stable emergency foods you already eat on a daily or weekly basis. Could you store more of it? Once you’ve created a plan for keeping plenty of food staples stored, consider high-quality freeze dried foods as a backup.
To get started, follow Failstate’s 6 Steps to Readiness.
Parting Thoughts
Preparing for a foreign cyberattack is a large, and overwhelming goal. While a cyberattack is a real possibility, you are more likely to be affected by a regional man-made or natural disaster. The silver lining is that getting ready for more likely disasters that could affect your area will also help you get ready for a disaster like a cyberattack.
Regardless of the disaster, any crisis that affects civilian infrastructure will have a similar end result – a scarcity of food, water, and power. The difference will be the severity of the crisis, and the timeline for recovery.
If you want to jumpstart your readiness today, Guide to Disaster Readiness is an all-in-one resource for getting your household ready for natural and man-made disasters. You’ll learn how to conduct a threat assessment for your location, how to make response plans for your family, and how to buy the right supplies to provide food and clean water to your household during a grid-down scenario.
