"It would be the ultimate irony if the most connected, the most media-saturated population in history failed to disseminate the most elementary survival plan until the power was out and it no longer had the capacity to do so."
In Lights Out, Ted Koppel gives a compelling, thorough overview of Americans' naivete and lack of preparation for a cyberattack that could disrupt the country's power grid in a catastrophic manner. Shocking in its reveal of avoidance and utter helplessness among the very agencies we would expect to be preparing for such an attack, he interviews numerous science, security, and military experts for their assessments and recommendations. Threading through these interviews is a consistent theme: we are not ready for that.
This book should be distributed to our President, Cabinet members, and Congress. Leading members of agencies that would be directly involved in assisting Americans through a disaster lasting weeks, perhaps months, should familiarize themselves with the facts and warnings Koppel has worked so hard to gather in these pages. Then they should take heed and prepare.
As for me, I am thankful for the wake up call. While I can't prepare on as a large a scale as some individuals and groups described in the book, I can step back and plan, with my family, what we would do for at least two weeks if the electricity failed in our city.
I received this book free of charge from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers in exchange for a fair review.
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