FOOD CRISIS
Listen up, if you have a Kindle, you’re in for a treat, if you don’t have one of the app equivalent on your PC, MAC or mobile device, quit stalling and go get it! Why? It’s simple – free information. Amazon and authors make lots of book available for free every day for their Kindle platform. See more after the jump, and learn why it’s OK to have digital and some paper books post-SHTF.
Hackers take control of U.S. public water system
According to a systems control expert for the city of Springfield, Illlinois, Russian hackers remotely destroyed a pump responsible for supplies thousands of homes in that city. While details are being kept quiet, the attack reportedly took place on November 8, and is being investigated by the FBI and DHS. What makes this particular attack worse is that it apparently gave the hackers control to the ‘master station’, according to a utilities adviser, Joe Weiss.
Weiss posted parts of a one-page report by the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, which says the hackers obtained access using login names and passwords taken during a hack on a US company which makes the software which controls machines in critical industrial facilities like water treatment plants, pumping stations, nuclear power stations and oil rigs.
A second hacker has already posted screen shots from another attack on systems in South Houston, Virginia running the same software. He claims it was only protect by a three-character password! I’ve no reason to not believe that claim because so many people are so careless with that sort of thing. In industrial applications such as this, the mistake is thinking a strong password isn’t needed because no one will ever get far enough into the system to try it.
PapaBravo’s Take:
Here is what takes the cake, the company that makes this extremely important software has no system of cyber forensics, which means they have no way of telling how many systems running their software are compromised. If you rely on municipal water, be sure you don’t have to during a t-plus event by storing significant amounts of water. People with deep wells (usually us rural folks) have some wiggle room with this one, but you don’t! Get some tough, portable water containers and get a little more peace of mind by being able to check one more thing off in your bug out book!
Canada’s New Plastic Money
According to the Bank Of Canada, starting with the new $100 bill, all current paper money will be replaced with a new polymer version which is longer lasting, harder to counterfeit and virtually tear-proof. Not much information is given on the anti-counterfeit measures of the new series, but they’re certainly colorful.
PapaBravo’s Bit:
I’m not sure how using a different material is supposed to help, the currency, like that of the US, is still a fiat currency and virtually worthless. Still, I bet that with enough of them, you could shingle a retreat roof!
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US Power Grid So Fragile EPA Has To Deceive Congress
So just how valuable are your preparations and skill building efforts? A freak snow storm knocked out power for millions of people in the north east in October. Almost a million are still without power! How many of them must rely on the state or federal government to provide for themselves and their families? Imagine the extra burden this put son an already battered economy. It’s no secret that mismanaged priorities and funds at all levels is responsible for this, but it’s now been made public that the EPA is trying to get it’s latest batch of regulations are aimed specifically at shutting down coal-burning power plants during a time of great need, without a coordinated effort to swap them with another power source. That means that an already over-burdened system of national power production is going to be pushed beyond the breaking point because the EPA wants to shut down as many of those power plants as possible.
I don’t like the idea of “dirty” coal being used to product power, it’s seems irresponsible for a 21st global leader like the US, but can the answer to balancing clean air and reliable power really be increasing brown-outs and black-outs across the nation? The EPA knows what it’s doing is the wrong way to conduct this reduction of air pollution because if it was all legit, they wouldn’t have to completely omit entire sections out of reports delivered to Congress when the full version has been circulated around the White House. To quote the omitted section, the EPA “is aware that concerns have been expressed by some, even in advance of this proposed rule, that this regulation may detrimentally impact the reliability of the electric grid.” The EPA then goes on to admit that what it calls “sources integral to reliable operation” [the targeted coal-fired power plants] may be forced to shut down, and that these retirements “could result in localized reliability problems.”
I’m not sure how it couldn’t since the system already experience pretty serious “localized reliability problems” without demanding more capacity from less sources! So this all begs the question to preppers reading this blog: Are your reliant on the power grid as your sole source of heat for cooking and warmth?
“is aware that concerns have been expressed by some, even in advance of this proposed rule, that this regulation may detrimentally impact the reliability of the electric grid.”
