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10/20/2019 Hackers Could Kill More People Than a Nuclear Attack | Live Science
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Hackers Could Kill More People Than a Nuclear Weapon

By Jeremy Straub - North Dakota State University August 27, 2019 Tech
Digital attacks can hit many targets at once.
B x
Jeremy Straub, 8-27-2019, "Hackers Could Kill
More People Than a Nuclear Weapon," livescience,
https://www.livescience.com/cyberattacks-could-
kill-more-than-nuclear-attacks.html
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(Image: © Shutterstock)
People around the world may be worried about nuclear tensions rising, but I think they're missing the fact that a major cyberattack
could be just as damaging — and hackers are already laying the groundwork.
With the U.S. and Russia pulling out of a key nuclear weapons pact — and beginning to develop new nuclear weapons — plus Iran
tensions and North Korea again test-launching missiles, the global threat to civilization is high. Some fear a new nuclear arms race.
That threat is serious — but another could be as serious, and is less visible to the public. So far, most of the well-known hacking
incidents, even those with foreign government backing, have done little more than steal data. Unfortunately, there are signs that
hackers have placed malicious software inside U.S. power and water systems, where it's lying in wait, ready to be triggered. The U.S.
military has also reportedly penetrated the computers that control Russian electrical systems.
Hacker Attacks: 6 Things You Must Know
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Many intrusions already
As someone who studies cybersecurity and information warfare, I'm concerned that a cyberattack with widespread impact, an
intrusion in one area that spreads to others or a combination of lots of smaller attacks, could cause signi cant damage, including
mass injury and death rivaling the death toll of a nuclear weapon.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, which would vaporize people within 100 feet and kill almost everyone within a half-mile, the death toll from
most cyberattacks would be slower. People might die from a lack of food, power or gas for heat or from car crashes resulting from a
corrupted tra c light system. This could happen over a wide area, resulting in mass injury and even deaths.
This might sound alarmist, but look at what has been happening in recent years, in the U.S. and around the world.
In early 2016, hackers took control of a U.S. treatment plant for drinking water, and changed the chemical mixture used to purify the
water. If changes had been made — and gone unnoticed — this could have led to poisonings, an unusable water supply and a lack of
water.
In 2016 and 2017, hackers shut down major sections of the power grid in Ukraine. This attack was milder than it could have been, as
no equipment was destroyed during it, despite the ability to do so. O cials think it was designed to send a message. In 2018,
unknown cybercriminals gained access throughout the United Kingdom's electricity system; in 2019 a similar incursion may have
penetrated the U.S. grid.
In August 2017, a Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant was hit by hackers who tried to blow up equipment by taking control of the same
types of electronics used in industrial facilities of all kinds throughout the world. Just a few months later, hackers shut down
monitoring systems for oil and gas pipelines across the U.S. This primarily caused logistical problems — but it showed how an
insecure contractor's systems could potentially cause problems for primary ones.
The FBI has even warned that hackers are targeting nuclear facilities. A compromised nuclear facility could result in the discharge of
radioactive material, chemicals or even possibly a reactor meltdown. A cyberattack could cause an event similar to the incident in
Chernobyl. That explosion, caused by inadvertent error, resulted in 50 deaths and evacuation of 120,000 and has left parts of the
region uninhabitable for thousands of years into the future.
Mutual assured destruction
My concern is not intended to downplay the devastating and immediate e ects of a nuclear attack. Rather, it's to point out that some
of the international protections against nuclear con icts don't exist for cyberattacks. For instance, the idea of "mutual assured
destruction" suggests that no country should launch a nuclear weapon at another nuclear-armed nation: The launch would likely be
detected, and the target nation would launch its own weapons in response, destroying both nations.
Cyberattackers have fewer inhibitions. For one thing, it's much easier to disguise the source of a digital incursion than it is to hide
where a missile blasted o from. Further, cyberwarfare can start small, targeting even a single phone or laptop. Larger attacks might
target businesses, such as banks or hotels, or a government agency. But those aren't enough to escalate a con ict to the nuclear
scale.
Nuclear grade cyberattacks B x

There are three basic scenarios for how a nuclear grade cyberattack might develop. It could start modestly, with one country's
intelligence service stealing, deleting or compromising another nation's military data. Successive rounds of retaliation could expand
the scope of the attacks and the severity of the damage to civilian life.
In another situation, a nation or a terrorist organization could unleash a massively destructive cyberattack — targeting several
electricity utilities, water treatment facilities or industrial plants at once, or in combination with each other to compound the damage.
Perhaps the most concerning possibility, though, is that it might happen by mistake. On several occasions, human and mechanical
errors very nearly destroyed the world during the Cold War; something analogous could happen in the software and hardware of the
digital realm.
Defending against disaster
Just as there is no way to completely protect against a nuclear attack, there are only ways to make devastating cyberattacks less likely.
The rst is that governments, businesses and regular people need to secure their systems to prevent outside intruders from nding
their way in, and then exploiting their connections and access to dive deeper.
Critical systems, like those at public utilities, transportation companies and rms that use hazardous chemicals, need to be much
more secure. One analysis found that only about one- fth of companies that use computers to control industrial machinery in the
U.S. even monitor their equipment to detect potential attacks — and that in 40% of the attacks they did catch, the intruder had been
accessing the system for more than a year. Another survey found that nearly three-quarters of energy companies had experienced
some sort of network intrusion in the previous year.
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10/20/2019 Hackers Could Kill More People Than a Nuclear Attack | Live Science

Hackers Could Kill More People Than a Nuclear Weapon

Digital attacks can hit many targets at once.

Hacker Attacks: 6 Things You Must Know

Many intrusions already

Mutual assured destruction

Nuclear grade cyberattacks B x

Defending against disaster

MORE ABOUT... LATEST

SEE MORE RELATED SEE MORE LATEST

Dead Elephant Found Lying on Top of a Squashed Crocodile. What Happened?

If You Wear Asics, You'll Love This Trick

Reassurance for your refuge

See Why Millions of Guys Are Obsessed With This Underwear...

The Story Behind Your Last Name Will Surprise You

These Are The Highest Quality Incontinence Products Around

US Cardiologist: It's Like a Pressure Wash for Your Insides

In Photos: 'Cachette of the Priests' Discovered in Luxor

The Best Dogs To Adopt According To Veterinarians

Why Don't Mountains Grow Forever?

The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

Amazing Images: The Best Science Photos of the Week

NASA Astronauts Make History with 1st All-Female Spacewalk

Fat Can Build Up in Your Lungs

Long-Lost WWII Ship Found at the Bottom of the Pacific Ocean

What Is the Cryosphere?

Vaping Outbreak Death Toll Reaches 33

Don't Miss! - 10/21 Preview

Don't Miss! - 10/20

Cuteness Alert! Little Mice

Watch These Newborn Panda

SIGN UP FOR E-MAIL

Get breaking science news on

No spam, we promise. You can unsubscribe at any time and

MOST READ MOST SHARED

2 30 'Cachette of the Priests' Mummies Discovered in Egypt

3 Long-Lost WWII Ship Found at the Bottom of the Paci c Ocean

5 How Can a Star Be Older Than the Universe?

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