EMP: A Frightening, Preventable Cyber Threat

Virtually everything we do today involves some kind of electronics or electronic devices: phones, computers, bank ATMs, store/market check-outs, hospital/medical equipment, heart pacemakers, vehicles, gasoline pumps—the list is endless. Now imagine if all those electronic devices were disabled or destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in a large region of the country. What would be the effect? Josh Peterson explains:

In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die. That’s the worst-case scenario that author William R. Forstchen estimated in 2011 would be the result of an EMP on the electric grid — whether by an act of God, or a nuclear missile detonating in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy strong enough to disable, and even destroy, nearby electronic devices.

The scenario sounds like something in a Hollywood film, but the U.S. military has been preparing its electronic systems for such an event since the Cold War. The protective measures taken to harden facilities against a nuclear attack also help in some cases to protect against EMPs.

The civilian world is another story.

Peterson writes that "[t]he catastrophic effects of an electromagnetic pulse-caused blackout could be preventable, but experts warn the civilian world is still not ready."

Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, both congressional advisory boards, said the technology to avoid disaster from electromagnetic pulses exists, and upgrading the nation’s electrical grid is financially viable.

“The problem is not the technology,” Pry said. “We know how to protect against it. It’s not the money, it doesn’t cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.”

He said the more officials plan, the lower the estimated cost gets.

“If you do a smart plan — the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that you could protect the whole country for about $2 billion,” Pry told Watchdog.org. “That’s what we give away in foreign aid to Pakistan every year.”

States and private companies have been working to improve EMP-preparedness, writes Peterson, "but experts continue to warn that time to do so is running out."

Read his full article, Experts: Civilians Not Ready for EMP-Caused Blackout