Synopses & Reviews
In this New York Times
bestselling investigation, Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack
on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would
be devastating, and that the United States is shockingly unprepared.
Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Tens of
millions of people over several states are affected. For those without
access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no
refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices
we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is
widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before.
It
isn’t just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the
nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our
infrastructure—and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the
only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States
could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief
scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated
the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that
independent actors — from “hacktivists” to terrorists — have the capability
as well. “It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General
Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.”
And yet, as Koppel
makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural
disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power
grid. The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a
battery-powered radio.
In the absence of a government plan, some
individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands.
Among the nation’s estimated three million “preppers,” we meet one whose
doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked
with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted
the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. We also see the
unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous
storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking
company — the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But
how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?
With urgency
and authority, one of our most renowned journalists examines a threat
unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a
catastrophe that is all but inevitable.
Review
“[Koppel’s] suggestion that the United States look back to the era of
mass civil defense as a model for how we might start to make
preparations is provocative and sobering at the same time.” The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
TED KOPPEL, a 42-year veteran of ABC
News, was anchor and managing editor of Nightline from 1980 to 2005. New
York University recently named Koppel one of the top 100 American
journalists of the past 100 years. He has won every significant
television award, including 8 George Foster Peabody Awards, 11 Overseas
Press Club Awards (one more than the previous record holder, Edward R.
Murrow), 12 duPont-Columbia Awards and 42 Emmys. Since 2005 he has
served as managing editor of the Discovery Channel, as a news analyst
for BBC America, as a special correspondent for Rock Center, and
continues to function as commentator and non-fiction book critic at NPR.
He has been a contributing columnist to the
New York Times, the
Washington Post, and the
Wall Street Journal and is the author the
New York Times bestseller
Off Camera.