Electrical grid failure and the dangers of energy blackouts

When the U.S. celebrates Independence Day, there are many references to the “red, white and blue” of our star-spangled banner, yet the U.S. is not the only nation with a red, white and blue flag. There is the French tri-color, the UK’s Union Jack, and Russia’s flag is white, red and blue. In America, red stands for one party, blue for another, and white, I guess, are independents.

November is an election month, and by the time this publishes, we will know whether our nation remains red, turns blue, or is some ghastly shade of purple. Looking at the future, it may not matter which color is in charge. Our problems will be the same either way.

The president was missing

As a James Patterson fan, when his latest mystery hit the stands, curiosity led me to purchase it. While not the best ever written, it is a page-turner. A fictional President Duncan prepares for a Congressional hearing where the fate of his presidency is threatened. He is accused of talking with a terrorist. As the story evolves, it turns out he received a message from his daughter in Europe about a computer virus called “Dark Ages.” Within hours, a young Georgian girl (from the former USSR) arrives at the White House with a message about “Dark Ages.” It has been installed and will be triggered in just hours. The President must act in order to stop the virus.

One of the hackers who created the virus explains it will attack unexpectedly, shutting down everything. No more electricity, no gas pumps, pipelines won’t flow and aviation will cease. The hacker says, “Fifty years ago, you had typewriters and carbon paper. Now you only have computers.” In a paperless society, without computers there are no records, no insurance files of who has what coverage or what is being claimed under that coverage. No bank accounts.

Everything from elevators, televisions and phones to grocery story scanners, credit card scanners, televisions, phones and traffic lights will be affected. The hackers says computers will be useless, just keyboards and blank screens.

Related:  Threat from cyber hackers is growing, U.S. grid regulator says

Are we overly dependent on ‘the Grid’?

Since paper backup became passé, once computer records are lost to malware, they may be impossible to recreate. That is why firms have backup media, but if malware has already infected the backup systems, they too, may fail. We know that hackers have the ability to get into any nation’s system and shut it down – that already happened to Iran’s system of centrifuges – it could be what caused the Northeast blackout a few years ago, blamed on “a tree touching wires in Ohio.”

For those of us in claims, a true cyber warfare attack will be shocking. Don’t bother going to work, even if you could get there. Your electronic key won’t open the door any longer. If or when the power comes back on, everything will need reprogramming. We’ll be like old Rip Van Winkle who went to sleep under a tree when George III was the monarch and awoke 20 years later when some guy named George Washington was in charge. The colors in his flag were the same, but the pattern had changed.

Ken Brownlee, CPCU, (kenbrownlee@msn.com) is a former adjuster and risk manager based in Atlanta, Ga. He now authors and edits claims-adjusting textbooks. Opinions expressed are the author’s own.