M
emorial Day is one of the
most important holidays
in the U.S.: Thousands of
military parades are held
to commemorate the fallen soldiers,
and millions of people take a break.
On this weekend in May, the heart of
the superpower nation is vulnerable.
And back in 2013, scattered sleeper
units struck in apparently perfectly
coordinated attacks: In four states,
explosions happened to take place
at trouble spots on the power grids.
Tens of thousands of people were
affected, stuck in elevators or traffi c
jams. Rumors that this was a large-
scale attack by hackers spread fast.
Had Chinese or Russian intelligence
agencies been behind it? In fact, the
perpetrators were Americans. And
they worked without any computers
or explosives, and they didn’t make
the headlines—they used their four
paws and had much more success
than their human counterparts...HOW DOES A PIPSQUEAK
CUT OFF THE ELECTRICITY?
Critical infrastructure—the electrical
grids, communication networks, and
transport hubs—is the backbone of
modern society. If this breaks down,
public order is quickly endangered.
For years intelligence agencies have
dreamed up possible ways hackers
could destroy a country instantly via
the Internet. In this way, they try to
justify the fi nancial resources that
they need to ward off the supposed
damage: In 2012, the U.S. Secretary
of Defense at the time Leon Panetta
warned of a “cyber Pearl Harbor,”
which could be as destructive as the
9/11 attack. And Keith Alexander, the
chief of the U.S. Cyber Command,
has added: “Our enemies want toattack the power grid. We observe
this in some of the things that are
taking place.” What has happened
since then? Nothing. Or rather, the
enemy has come from a completely
different direction. Instead of people,
it’s curious animals that mount the
attacks—birds, jellyfi sh, ants, and
above all, squirrels. These mammals
are the true kings of cyberterrorism.
Approximately every second power
outage that’s caused by an animal
is attributable to these lightweight
bushy-tailed beasts. They were also
the culprits on Memorial Day 2013.
On the other hand,
to date there have
only been three or
four attacks that
were successfully
perpetrated upon
industrial facilities
by human hackers
using the Internet.
Reason: “It is very
diffi cult to execute
this kind of cyber-
attack,” points out
IT security expert
Bruce Schneier. It
usually takes a lot
of programming to
create this sort of
a virus, and only the best-equipped
intelligence agencies can afford it.
Even then, it takes months or years.
However, the top terrorists known
as squirrels are quite different: Their
power is so great that the American
Public Power Association created a
squirrel power outage index, which
notes between 0.1 and 0.6 incidents
per thousand customers per month.
In California alone, these onslaughts
can cost up to $300 million per year.
“Typically, the animals touch a livecable and a grounded component
such as the pole at the same time,
leading to a short circuit,” explains
Matthew Olearczyk of the Electric
Power Research Institute in Palo
Alto. Sometimes the event lasts only
a fraction of a second and then the
power supply restarts automatically.
Sometimes the squirrel will remain
trapped in the short circuit position,
which means the system must pull
in more and more electrical current
in order to compensate. In this way
the animal can heat up to more than
1,800°F, and it virtually explodes.
This incident can
result in the long-
term shutdown of
the entire system.
But despite all
this, the electrical
distribution sub-
stations continue
to attract the agile
creatures: On one
hand the facilities
provide shelter as
well as protection
from enemies, and
on the other hand
wind and cooling
fans readily blow
seeds and other
foods into the facility. Plus, there is
always something for the animals to
chew on: “A squirrel’s incisors grow
up to 10 inches per year—they have
to constantly bite on things to wear
them down,” explains University of
Arizona zoologist John Koprowski.
No matter if it’s barred windows,
traps, or fox urine, nothing seems to
effectively discourage the creatures
from hacking our infrastructure. They
form an army of unwitting terrorists
with no interest in making headlines.“THE NUMBER
ONE THREAT
TO THE U.S.
ELECTRICAL
GRIDS IS
SQUIRRELS.”
JOHN INGLIS,
FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR
OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY
AGENCY (NSA)PHOTOS: Google; Fotolia; Caters; Getty Images; DDP; VCG/Getty Images.ideasanddiscoveries.com 15 Mar 2017