I am so tired of conspiracy theories about
1) Nationwide blackouts
2) Nationwide internet takedowns

It's like suggesting somebody is going to simultaneously unscrew every screw of varying sizes and types in your home.

Neither of those things is happening in modern times without a nuke or an asteroid.

Also, the "national blackout" wet dream conspiracy theory is about the lamest one I can possibly think of - grow some post-apocalyptic creativity. Places all over the world do fine with unstable power. I think of 11 more interesting ways to destroy civilization by breakfast.

Okay, so real talk - some countries with authoritarian governments have constructed their nationalized internet infrastructure so there are only a few ways in and out and it *can* be shut down by the government. Ours is a commercial hodgepodge of redundancies and egress points.

With regards to power infrastructure in the United States - we *do not have a national grid*. Here's what it actually looks like. We even share some infrastructure with Canada. We have three grids. They are each made up a colorful mix of independent providers and technologies.

Can you imagine, as red teamers, coordinating efforts to take down power in three separate grids, eight regions, four interconnects, and 3,300 electric utilities all using slightly different tech or operational models?

Like I said, your conspiracy theories are inadequately researched and lack creativity.

Before our salespeople yell at me - electric utilities and their industrial systems are absolutely a target of hacking, and adversaries are exploring and targeting them for a multitude of criminal and state-sponsored reasons. However, they're using a scalpel, not a machete.

I teach a (commmercial) class on this with @malanalysis, @seth_enoka, @JimGilsinn and you can come take it if this is something you want to know more about, otherwise I recommend https://www.robertmlee.org/a-collection-of-resources-for-getting-started-in-icsscada-cybersecurity/ and I did two talks about it here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lesley+carhart+ics

Here's a good twitter list which includes my much more accomplished pals in ICS security at some different companies, from @chrissistrunk https://twitter.com/i/lists/969993155868266496

@threadreaderapp would you be so kind as to unroll this for folks?