Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 technology
Tuesday 30 July 2019
AP Explains: How big a threat is an electromagnetic attack?

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ experts believe the likeli-
AP Business Writer hood of such an attack is
NEW YORK (AP) — When low and the threat is over-
much of Venezuela was stated.
plunged into darkness af- "If they want to knock out
ter a massive blackout this the grid, I was trying to
week, President Nicolás think of 12 ways to do it,
Maduro blamed the power this wouldn't be high on the
outage on an "electromag- list," said Bill Hogan, profes-
netic attack" carried out by sor of global energy policy
the U.S. at Harvard University. "The
The claim was met with (U.S.) system is run very
skepticism. Blackouts are a conservatively, there's a lot
regrettably frequent part of of redundancy, and you'd
life in Venezuela, where the have to be pretty sophisti-
electric grid has fallen into cated to knock out a lot of
serious disrepair. And Mad- it."
uro's administration provid- Others are convinced that
ed no evidence of an elec- an electromagnetic attack
tromagnetic attack. could wipe out vast swaths
"In Venezuela, it's a lot eas- of the U.S. power grid for
ier for him to say we did prolonged periods, poten-
something to him than he tially killing most Americans.
did it to himself," said Sha- In this Monday, July 22, 2019, file photo, people walk on a street during a blackout in Caracas, The Electric Power Re-
ron Burke, senior adviser Venezuela. search Institute, a think tank
at New America, a non- Associated Press funded primarily by utilities,
partisan think tank, and found in an April study that
former assistant secretary to disturbances caused by and telecommunications in uro's claim. "You can't se- an electromagnetic pulse
of defense for operational solar flares. parts of Honolulu, illuminat- cretly detonate a nuclear could trigger regional ser-
energy at the Department There are also smaller elec- ing the sky and even lead- weapon." vice interruptions but would
of Defense. "Their grid, it's tromagnetic pulse weap- ing hotels to host viewing A senior U.S. administration not likely trigger a nation-
decrepit. It's been in very ons that are being devel- parties, according to news official said Maduro is to wide grid failure in the U.S.
poor shape. They've been oped, but they would be reports. blame for the latest black- But the Commission to As-
starving their infrastructure unlikely to cause a power Russia conducted a series out because his govern- sess the Threat to the Unit-
for years." outage as large as the one of "high-altitude nuclear ment has mismanaged the ed States from Electromag-
Nevertheless, Maduro's Venezuela experienced, bursts" in 1961 and 1962 to economy and is responsi- netic Pulse Attack, which
claim has raised questions experts said. test electromagnetic pulse ble for the destruction of his has been sounding the
over what exactly is an The term electromagnet- impacts over Kazakhstan country's infrastructure. The alarm on the possibility of
electromagnetic attack, ic attack also can refer and destroyed that coun- official was not authorized this type of attack for years,
how likely is it to occur and cryptography, or an at- try's electrical grid, accord- to respond to questions said in 2017 Congressional
what impact could it have. tack where the perpetra- ing to testimony to Con- about the blackout and testimony that a nuclear
WHAT IS AN ELECTROMAG- tor is seeking secret keys gress from the Commission spoke only on condition of electromagnetic pulse at-
NETIC ATTACK? or passwords, but that's to Assess the Threat to the anonymity. tack would inflict massive
The phrase "electromag- more likely to be directed United States from Electro- Unlike a cyberattack, widespread damage to
netic attack" can refer to at portable electronic de- magnetic Pulse Attack. which can be carried out the electric grid. An at-
different things, but in this vices, not electric grids, COULD VENEZUELA HAVE by a hacker in a basement, tack on the U.S., it warned,
context most likely refers said Shucheng Yu, an asso- SUFFERED FROM AN ELEC- generating an electromag- would inevitably lead to
to a high-altitude electro- ciate professor of electrical TROMAGNETIC ATTACK? netic pulse requires a state- a widespread protracted
magnetic pulse generated & computer engineering at While several countries sponsored weapon. blackout and thousands of
when a nuclear weapon is Stevens Institute of Technol- have capabilities to deto- "It's hard to imagine that electronic systems could be
detonated in space, about ogy. nate a nuclear weapon actor being incentivized to destroyed, risking millions
30 kilometers above the HAS ELECTROMAGNETIC and cause an electromag- pull off and conduct such of lives. President Donald
Earth's surface. Once the PULSE TECHONLOGY EVER netic pulse, it's unlikely that an attack. It would be pret- Trump called on the Secre-
weapon is detonated, an BEEN USED? such a maneuver would es- ty aggressive to do that," tary of Defense to conduct
electromagnetic pulse can In the 1962, during the Cold cape the world's attention. said David Weinstein, chief research to understand the
travel to the Earth's surface War, the U.S. detonated a "If he's suggesting that the security officer at Claroty, a effects of EMPs in an exec-
and disrupt a wide variety nuclear weapon above U.S. detonated a nuclear security company that spe- utive order in March, and
of technology systems from the atmosphere over the weapon above the at- cializes in protecting infra- called on the Secretary of
appliances to a nation's Pacific Ocean, and the mosphere, you think that structure. "Also, the power State to work with allies to
electric grid. Some char- experiment — known as would happen without fails easily in Venezuela boost resilience to poten-
acteristics of an electro- Starfish Prime — knocked anyone noticing? I don't anyway, so it's almost like a tial impacts to EMPs.
magnetic pulse are similar out power to traffic lights think so," Burke said of Mad- waste of the capability." "I think it's a good thing that
HOW MUCH OF A THREAT awareness has grown, and
DOES AN ELECTROMAG- the potential risks and con-
NETIC PULSE ATTACK POSE? sequences have captured
It depends on who you people's attention, but at
ask. While the technology the same time, the much
to launch an electromag- more practical and frankly
netic attack exists, and the threat that we're fac-
the impacts could cause ing on a day-to-day basis is
/arubatoday/ widespread damage to the cyber threat," Weinstein
electronics, some security said.q