Book review: Lights Out

In the October, 2016 issue of our Senior Lawyers’ Section Council newsletter, Leonard F. Amari, a member of this Section Council, wrote an article titled “Cyber Fraud and Cyber Security-What’s this all about?” This article presented some of the concerns we should have about cyber fraud and its consequences in our law offices.

About the time I read Leonard’s article, I was reading a book, which had recently been loaned to me by a friend, concerning cyber attacks on a much larger scale than in our offices. This book, which will be the subject of this book review, and the newsletter article were, I am sure, meant to act as wake up calls for all of us about today’s internet and how tragic events are now overshadowing many of the good things it was meant to bring to us.

While we do not like to reflect much, if at all, on “gloom and doom” theories or examples, I have nevertheless chosen Ted Koppel’s 2015 book, Lights Out, for this book review.

Koppel, as you might remember, hosted the television program “Nightline” on ABC television from 1980 to 2005. The book is available in hard cover (249 pages), paper back, electronic and audio versions.

The book points out our interdependency on three major electrical grids for generating and distributing electricity throughout the continental United States. In other words, electrical power is generated in one location and sent over a managed transmission network and then passed on to yet another company for final distribution to us, as consumers.

As you might expect, there is large scale competition for our business up and down these lines, which in turn encourages many hands to become involved. Of course each hand involved is very much dependent on several computers. All of this tends to make these grids vulnerable because, within any one of our three grids, almost all operational phases of thousands of power companies are interconnected. This makes any one of these three grids vulnerable to cyber attacks not only by countries such as North Korea, China, Russia and Iran, but also by individual hackers using the internet as a weapons system to disrupt our way of life.

The author delves into the almost unimaginable scenario of not having electricity for our homes, businesses, gas pumps, travel, machinery, military, purification of water, collecting garbage, and communications, just to mention a few of our necessities dependent on electrical power. He also predicts that, after any electrical cyber attack, such calamities will continue not for just hours, but for days, weeks and even months. This will basically bring our country to a standstill, making us very vulnerable to sabotage and invasion without firing a single shot or dropping any bombs. This complete blackout would also encourage looting and crimes from within.

A couple of examples were given of similar, but smaller, cyber attacks. The United States and Israel cyber attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2008, and North Korea cyber attacked Sony Pictures because of the satirical portrayal of its President, Kim Jong Un, in Sony’s movie “The Interview.”

Koppel, after interviewing several government officials, particularly in Homeland Security and FEMA, theorizes that there is very little the federal government can do to prevent such attacks and/or to deal with their aftermath, pointing to the delays and lack of assistance given the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Because of the government’s perceived inability to deal with national tragedies and perhaps to emphasize the so called ants and grasshopper fable, Koppel devotes three chapters in this book to people who are called “Preppers”. These people have been preparing for years for just such catastrophic events by storing food, water, heating fuel, generators, clothing, bedding, gasoline, and even building lakes stocked with fish.

The Preppers have also accumulated firearms and ammunition, not only for hunting, but also for protecting themselves from invading enemies and looters, as well as those who failed to prepare for disasters. This is reminiscent of the bomb shelter building in the 1950s and 1960s, and the question of whether one was justified in killing someone trying to break into their well-stocked bomb shelter during a crisis.

The author also devotes another three chapters to detailing and admiring the preparations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how the Mormons could help their members throughout the world. This church’s ability to obtain and distribute necessities is comparable to that of Wal Mart and Costco.

Obviously, this book has become quite controversial among power company executives and employees, who claim to have security in place to prevent such cyber attacks. Some also claim not to have been interviewed as part of Mr. Koppel’s research before writing and publishing the book. Personally, I would not be too prone to share or disclose what means I had in place for protecting against cyber attacks, even if I were contacted for an interview for this book.

Because of the hacking and disclosures that took place during the last presidential election by Wiki Leaks, Russia and whoever, I think this book reveals many concerns, even if some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt, about our vulnerability to cyber attacks and what, if anything, we or the government can do for us during and after any such attack(s). Hopefully, we will never have to experience any of this to find out for sure. 