Just how absolutely dependent we are on computers. Most records are computerized, most financial and business decisions are made by computer, many factories in the us are automated to a large degree.
Two problems. First of all, all of this requires that the electric power stays on. No power, no banking, no medical records, stores can't order things, confirm orders, or collect payments. Without that. Essentially, business stops or goes back to 1960s tech. And that would slow things down a lot.
But the other part is that a determined hacker can get at anything they want. If you wanted to, (and had the means) you could alter a medical records or Doctor order -- give that guy you want dead a massive overdose or a drug he's allergic to. You could go in and change or delete orders at your least favorite store (and suddenly Aldis gets an entire truckload of dildos) thus costing the shipping company and the store lots of money. You could rewrite codes on manufacturing equipment to cause that equipment to destroy itself or to make dangerous products. (Stuxxnet as an example of this).
The thing is that all of this is only going to get more integrated with computers. Once you have computers driving, automate even more, it becomes not only impossible to prevent a hack, but much harder for society to recover once it gets destroyed. If there are no analog records anywhere and money exists only as digital data, then once it comes down, there's no way to buy, sell, or authenticate yourself. If the market has no records, they have no money, and they can't get anything because all the warehouse trucks are self driving.
Just how absolutely dependent we are on computers. Most records are computerized, most financial and business decisions are made by computer, many factories in the us are automated to a large degree.
Two problems. First of all, all of this requires that the electric power stays on. No power, no banking, no medical records, stores can't order things, confirm orders, or collect payments. Without that. Essentially, business stops or goes back to 1960s tech. And that would slow things down a lot.
But the other part is that a determined hacker can get at anything they want. If you wanted to, (and had the means) you could alter a medical records or Doctor order -- give that guy you want dead a massive overdose or a drug he's allergic to. You could go in and change or delete orders at your least favorite store (and suddenly Aldis gets an entire truckload of dildos) thus costing the shipping company and the store lots of money. You could rewrite codes on manufacturing equipment to cause that equipment to destroy itself or to make dangerous products. (Stuxxnet as an example of this).
The thing is that all of this is only going to get more integrated with computers. Once you have computers driving, automate even more, it becomes not only impossible to prevent a hack, but much harder for society to recover once it gets destroyed. If there are no analog records anywhere and money exists only as digital data, then once it comes down, there's no way to buy, sell, or authenticate yourself. If the market has no records, they have no money, and they can't get anything because all the warehouse trucks are self driving.