The DOOMSDAY plan if America’s power systems are wiped out by cyber attacks

The US is at an ever growing risk of a cyber attacks, with energy infrastructure likely to be hackers’ prime target.

This was the stark warning made by General Keith Alexander, the retired general and former chief of the National Security Agency, earlier this year.

Now, the Pentagon says it has a plan to do something about the threat.

Its research division, Darpa, has launched a new program to target security threats that have the potential to wipe out all of America’s power systems.

Darpa has launched a new program to target security threats to critical infrastructures in the US. It wants to focus on infrastructure that is vital to the Department of Defense’s missions

Initially, however, it will focus on infrastructure that is vital to the Department of Defense’s missions.

Dubbed Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization (RADICS), its goal is to develop automated systems to deal with a loss of power.

They say these systems should help utilities engineers restore power within seven days of an attack.

‘If a well-coordinated cyber attack on the nation’s power grid were to occur today, the time it would take to restore power would pose daunting national security challenges,’ said John Everett, Darpa program manager.

‘Beyond the severe domestic impacts, including economic and human costs, prolonged disruption of the grid would hamper military mobilisation and logistics, impairing the government’s ability to project force or pursue solutions to international crises.’

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