Category: Emerging Threats

Letter Re: The Vulnerability of Many Commonplace RF Electronics

Dear JWR, Regarding the recently linked article on the hack of the Simplisafe alarm system, I’d like to alert readers to the fact that many, many radio frequency (RF) devices available on the US market have similar vulnerabilities. But it’s worse than that. These devices operate on one of several unlicensed radio frequency bands authorized under Title 47, part 15 of the FCC rules, most specifically Section 15.231. There are transmitters available for purchase on 433MHz, as used by Simplisafe, and they are quite inexpensive. Many of these evaluation kits only require attachment of a battery and you are ready …


Letter Re: Shielding Electronics From EMP

HJL, Another point on electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and Faraday cages is even something simple can be protective. There are 30 Gallon galvanized steel trash cans with lids (made in the USA!) available at my local farm and ranch store for $22. This makes for affordable and easy storage, and you can wrap things in common aluminum foil. Or even something like a steel cabinet or vault, but generally try to avoid gaps or spaces. It doesn’t have to be zero signal, but reduce the field strength enough to prevent damage. Vehicles have some protection for many years. In the early …


SSL On Your Web Server – A Certificate is Just the Start, by Peter S.

If you are running a web server for your business and taking orders from customers, then you have probably acquired a certificate to encrypt the network traffic between your customers’ web browsers and your web server. However, how well are you really doing it? The SSL Labs website offers a free service to test how well your web server is configured for this goal. Someone may have already run the test and made a decision about your business just based on the results. Remember, if your web server is exposed to the Internet, then anyone can run this test. You …


Letter: EMP Effect and Pacemakers

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Hugh, I have an implanted cardiac device (a pacemaker and defibrillator) and, after reading the letter about possible effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on batteries, became curious as to how an EMP or maybe a strong solar flare could affect my device. I searched SurvivalBlog’s archives and saw that such an event could possibly damage the implanted cardiadefibrillator (ICD). Is there any firm evidence as to what may actually happen to an ICD or similar device in the human body and anything that can be done to counter the effects? It seems it will be a bleak future for the …


Letter Re: Passports

Dear Editors: Regarding RM’s question about keeping passports current, here is a Wikipedia link that includes information on which countries allow entry to American citizens without the need to obtain a visa in advance.   That provides some interesting reading.  – JustCallMeAnn


Red List, Blue List, Black List, You List

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There has been a lot of conjecture in the past 40 years in patriot circles about the existence of government “round up lists”. Large-scale disaster and war planning exercises, like REX-84 (Readiness Exercise-1984) and Jade Helm 2015, have stimulated endless discourse about whether or not the government maintains a so-called “red list” and “blue list” of people that they deem to be dissidents who they might target for harassment, travel restrictions, or even detention without due process of law. Because any such lists would presumably be developed and updated under the wraps of a security classification and the Need To …


The Latest Wave of The Sagebrush Rebellion

The recent events at the former Malheur Wildlife Refuge (now called the Harney County Resource Center) are just the latest wave of the well-justified Sagebrush Rebellion that has been going on in western states for 30+ years. Even though they lack any constitutional authority over land that should rightfully belong to the States (per Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17), bureaucrats from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been riding roughshod over the west. They have been doing so through their often capricious and dictatorial policies on grazing, timber cutting, mining, weed control, access to water, hunting, recreational shooting, …


The Grid Will Never Be Down in the Way You May Think! – Part 1, by X-liberal

I want to illustrate is that the grid is never going to be down. That is, I mean it won’t be down for the “chosen few”. Why? Well, let’s go to God’s word in the Book of Revelation Chapter 13:16 and have a look. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” What this is saying …


Observations on the December 2nd California Terror Attack

The tragic events yesterday in California’s Inland Empire deserve attention. I’ll just stick to the facts: The primary shooter, Sayeed Rizwan Farook, age 28, was American-born to parents who were from Karachi, Pakistan, and was described as “a very devout Muslim”. He recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. According to The Daily Mail, “Farook graduated from California State University, San Bernardino with a degree in environmental health in 2009.” The second shooter killed in the shootout was Farook’s wife Tashfeen Malik, a pharmacist, age 27, born in Pakistan but more recently a resident of Saudi Arabia, who had married Farook two …


Our Family’s Journey to Preparing For an Extended Grid Down Event- Part 1, by Old Man

To paraphrase an old saying, prepping is not a destination but a journey, or rather it’s a lifestyle. In this article I would like to share some highlights of our family’s journey to preparing for an extended grid down event, including what we found works and didn’t work for us. Hopefully, this might help some folks avoid the mistakes we made and stir some ideas for others. When I was a youngster, I joined the Boy Scouts. It was there that I was first bit by the prepping bug. I took to the Boy Scouts motto of “Be Prepared” like …


Letter Re: The OTHER Electrical Grid Failure Problem

Hugh, As an electrician with over 20 years experience in power generation, I can tell you that there is no way if a massive grid down event takes place, the nuclear reactors in this country will be safe. A failure of the electrical system will not be able to be repaired quickly. You will find one or two electricians working on nights and weekends; the rest are going to be home. Do you think they will leave their families? Most locations have more than one reactor that will be down. And I understand, you have about 4 hours to get …


Structured Thinking for Practical Prepping for Suburban Life, by S.I.R.

I am writing this article based on my experience as Army Infantry officer, a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and intelligence professional, but most of all as someone who uses structured thinking to plan against and mitigate threats. It is important to plan for events that are less of a threat yet highly probable that in turn provide the foundation to plan for extremely dangerous threats that are less likely to happen. Structured thinking and scenario development will assist the average reader with how to move beyond theory and talk to practical planning. The Americans I interact with live in …


Letter Re: The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities

Mr. Editor: Regarding the recent discussion of the “Golden Horde” concept (in Patrice Lewis’s guest article The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities) — it seems that a review of the history of Germany’s 30 Years’ War (from 1618 to 1648) would be in order. You may recall how Wallenstein rejected the idea of a 40,000-man army, demanding 100,000. Austria protested that such a large army would be too expensive. The reply was, that the larger army would finance itself [through what was euphemistically called “foraging”, on a tactical scale, and “plunder” on a strategic scale], while the smaller …


The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities, by Patrice Lewis

A common concern among rural people in a grid-down situation is the concept of marauding urbanites swarming through the countryside looting and pillaging — the so-called Golden Horde. I addressed this issue on my blog a few months ago when a reader noted, “You can hide yourself, but not your garden. Are you going to take your beef herd into your house with you? In any long-term crisis situation, your cattle and garden will be indefensible and therefore gone in a matter of months. You cannot protect them from a determined large, armed group.” This reader respectfully listed what he …


Guest Post: The Difference Between Gold and Debt, by Gary Christenson

Simple version: Gold is good. Sovereign debt is bad. The world has added approximately $60 Trillion in debt since 2007, much of it sovereign debt created from deficit spending on social programs, wars, and much more. In that time the world has mined perhaps 30,000 tons of gold, or about 950 million ounces, worth at September 2015 prices a little more than a $Trillion. It is easy to create debt – central banks “print” currencies by borrowing those currencies into existence. Debt increases, currency in circulation increases, and until it crashes, life is good for the financial and political elite. …