Category: Emerging Threats

Letter Re: The Exposed Backbone: The Risk of Cyber Attack

James: I too am a 25 year IT veteran with the last 14 years specializing in information security.  I am currently in process of completing a PhD in the field.  There is nothing that currently exists that can save us from the coming cyber attack that will devastate our infrastructure.  The security vulnerabilities are legion.  Our only hope is the Lord and using the good minds He gave us to become self-sufficient.  The vain attempts of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency has only resulted in a loss of our personal freedom and privacy.  The more I learn, the …


The Exposed Backbone: The Risk of Cyber Attack by LockedGate

Computers are the exposed backbone of America’s infrastructure. They are new technology with big holes that is under attack from very skilled and motivated people who mean our country harm.  Yet, we trust them to provide almost every service our modern life requires. I’ve spent the last 13 years as a computer security expert for a large telecom, and I would like to convince you that today your family’s ability to survive is dependent on fragile and over-trusted systems. Preppers have historically had distrust for computing technology. Y2K was a real risk, but since it seemed to be overblown, a catastrophic computer-centric risk has fallen off …


Three Letters Re: Commercial Storage Space Thievery

Hi Jim, To follow up on the recent letter on Commercial Storage Space Thievery, I had a very similar experience with my storage locker.  I have a locker from Public Storage in Saratoga, California and had the very same thing happen.  I checked out my unit one night and another lock was on the unit.  I had the Sheriff come by and they did the usual.  The problem I am having presently is the insurance company hasn’t really done much and its been three months [since I discovered the theft.]  I had all the receipts from Amazon.com and Costco.com so …


Letter Re: Commercial Storage Space Thievery

JWR, Not to share my misery, but this is a warning to anyone that has items in a climate-controlled rental storage unit.  My unit was hit and no one knows when it and all the others were hit until one guy noticed some items missing and filed a police report.  The facility owners chopped off all the locks to all of their climate-controlled units and put their own locks on it.  Then they started calling the owners and verified what was in each unit.   Here is what happened: The robbers chopped the locks off, burglarized many items, and then …


Assessing Risk and Analyzing Hazards for Any Scenario, by Kyrottimus

As a former United States Air Force Readiness Troop (formerly known as “Disaster Preparedness” and, I think, now known as “Emergency Management”), AFSC 3E9X1, part of the Disaster Response Force within Civil Engineering Squadron’s “Prime BEEF” (Base Emergency Engineer Force), and having trained heavily with RED HORSE, I was exposed to quite the gamut of “Full-Spectrum Threat Response Plans”. I could go on ad nauseam about the myriad of tasks and responsibilities affiliated with this career field, but I wont. Specifically, this is about the process of performing a Risk Assessment and Hazard Analysis. I’m sure as many experts in …


Letter Re: Sunspot 11476 Update

Hi James, At about 12:30 UTC this morning Sunspot 11476 flared at the M4.7 level thereafter remaining at an elevated emission state. As of just a few minutes ago it re-flared, peaking to M1.8. Last night’s read at Solen.info gave the area as 1100 SM and noted significant complexity at at least two points within the spot. This morning’s HMIB from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) platform has in the leading spot a section in which very high positive and negative magnetic gradients are immediately adjacent to each other with strong intermixing occurring. This is almost always a sign that …


Letter Re: Don’t Be Blind-sided By a Secondary Event

Dear James: I second the motion – any nuclear power experts on the blog that can comment on the threat from further catastrophes in Japan, or similar catastrophes happening here in the US? Quite frankly I had not paid enough attention to Fukushima.  What I am finally reading is incredibly disturbing.   To summarize, we have a fragile earthquake, and tsunami damaged building, holding tons of highly radioactive and unstable nuclear fuel rods – on the building’s second storey, 100 feet in the air, in an active earthquake zone. Here is a photo. Here is a quote: “If an earthquake or …


Letter Re: Don’t Be Blind-sided By a Secondary Event

Mr. Rawles, Bill W. recently wrote about some of the possible consequences of nuclear power plants when the SHTF. Although I agree that a minimum safe distance during an individual plant emergency is 50 rather than 20 miles, I have to wonder if distance is that important 4 – 6 weeks out during a continent-wide event. I work for an electric cooperative and live less than 25 miles north of the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant in Virginia. During last summer’s earthquake, an electrical engineer told me the plant had tripped offline. I could not find this out from any news outlet on …


Don’t Be Blind-Sided By a Secondary Event, by Bill W.

I’m 62 years old and live in the suburbs of a large town in Georgia (not Atlanta).  I think of myself as an intermediate prepper.  I’ve studied a lot and have plans in place for myself and my family should events turn sour.  I’ve got all the survival manuals in place and have prepared to defend my family should the worst happen.  My family is prepped and ready to go.  Though I’ve not bought much in the way of food stuff, I have all the hardware and I know where to get the food stuff on short order.  I keep …


Letter Re: List of Countries by Real Population Density

James Wesley: As they say in the radio world, “long time listener, first time caller”… First off, thank you for sharing your words of wisdom for those of us who aren’t prepared.  Admittedly, I am one of those fence-sitters, liking the idea of prepping but not having near enough money to start in that direction, let alone uproot the new wife farther from her family than we already are.  Nonetheless, your articles (and those by your contributors on SurvivalBlog.com) are eye-opening and help me remind myself that we are just a few small steps from something really bad. As to …


Letter Re: Disasters and the Dreaded Multigenerational Scenario

Dear Jim, We have already seen how the largely bankrupt USA has dealt with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans remains partially empty and its population is much lower. Those who had any money left when the hurricane was announced to hit. If they returned, it was to recover a few belongings and collect their insurance checks before ceding the property/ruin back to the FedGov/State. Surrounding areas where the Hurricane spent its fury have been abandoned. The wrecked 9th Ward of New Orleans was not rebuilt. Someday it will flood again, and this time with few people to complain, it will probably turn …


Letter Re: A New Malware Threat

SurvivalBlog readers: If you have a fairly recently manufactured computer, there is no reason to expose your computer to malware at all. Most computers are powerful enough to host a “virtual machine” (MM) – that is, a session that is completely isolated from the hosting computer and that does not make any permanent changes to your system without your express command. VMs can be modified, saved and discarded as you wish. If you are browsing the web using a VM and suspect that you have encountered a virus or malware, simply discard that session and start a new one. There …


Letter Re: A New Malware Threat

Hello, Mr Rawles: I saw the Odds ‘n Sods piece where Michael Z. Williamson’s forwarded an article on the warning about “thousands of PCs infected” to lose Internet access that refers people to www.dcwg.org. I read the article. Sorry, but I don’t trust going to such a site. It could easily be a government-based data collection site. It’s amazing how much information is passed along with simply browsing a web site. dcwg.org is registered to someone in Cupertino, California. I found that www.DNS-OK.us will give the same information about whether a system is infected or not. That site is registered …


Letter Re: Defending Static Positions in a Survival Setting

Mr. Rawles,   Three thoughts on this topic:   1.  If you are relying on defending your home without outside help then the battle is already lost.  It is too easy to burn down your average residence.  Defense should be a community endeavor with “depth” provided by multiple engagements from multiple locations.   2.  I believe that your average, semi-motivated troublemakers in a TEOTWAWKI will lack training and will become victims of “target fixation”.  In other words, they will be motivated to roam around and loot but will not have a modicum of good tactical skills.  They will fixate on their target and …


Letter Re: An Expat’s View of Overseas Relocation and Expatriation

CPT Rawles, I want to provide a counterpoint to AmEx’s letter about the futility of permanent expatriation.  I too have taken a job overseas, after much effort, and am establishing myself permanently in a particular country in Asia.  I agree with AmEx that renouncing one’s US citizenship is probably a bit much, I think he severely underestimates the danger that the US government will (I believe) present to it’s citizens.  While I am still a US citizen, my wife, who earns all our non-salary income privately, and our children are not.  This is something we worked out years ago to limit the reach of my government into our lives. …