In today's fast-paced society, we have come so heavily dependent on our technological resources, that it of great importance to discern the affects that a major national power outage would have on American citizens. This article is aimed to shed a bit of light on the possible future cyber-attacks, the affects that they would have on American citizens, and also how we can prepare for the lurking possibility, that this most certainly could happen.
First and foremost, American citizens need to be aware that the power-grid is aging, and is certainly not as a reliable source as it once was. If in fact, America does face a sudden power-grid shutdown, Americans need to be prepared for cyber-attacks that will undoubtedly begin to occur. Our reliance on computers and technological sources seem to grow by the day, and the loss of data would by means of a national blackout would be a hard hit to the nation.
The majority of America's 18 major infrasture systems are civilian owned and linked together via the internet. Interestingly, they are not very well protected either. One of the main purposes for the initial creation of the internet, was to be able to have a stable and steady mode of communication in the event of a nuclear attack. If the system were to shut down unexpectedly (by way of a blackout for instance) it would take a mere matter of seconds for an outside hacker to gain every source of information he or she wants to get their hands on. National secrets, credit card and banking information, the possibilities are limitless, and it may be painful to admit, but the slow acting electrical grid that Americans so heavily rely on, may take too long to bring its systems back to normal that the country as...