Cyber-attack: why care?
"My Internet connection goes out all the time, why should I care about a cyber-attack? - comment from a colleague"
We have only been using the Internet for a decade or so. If the Internet were to go down for a day or even a week it would be a serious problem and have a major economic effect. Congressional hearings would be held and those responsible would risk wearing an orange jumpsuit for a very long time.
But hearings would be held, which is to say that civilization would not collapse. We have become used to the Internet but we have not become dependent on it in the same way that we have become dependent on the power, water and sewage systems that make our modern cities possible.
Water can be stored, but the electricity grid is a just-in-time system. Most Internet infrastructure is protected with battery backup and standby generators, but what about the water and sewage systems? What about the agrcultural and logistic infrastructure that puts food on the table.
In many countries the power system is not dependable and as a result it is not depended on. Our industrial society has built its dependence on the power system for over a century.
