Are Squirrels A Bigger Threat To Our Critical Infrastructure? (bbc.com)

"The real threat to global critical infrastructure is not enemy states or organizations but squirrels, according to one security expert." Long-time Slashdot reader randomErr quotes the BBC. Cris Thomas has been tracking power cuts caused by animals since 2013... His Cyber Squirrel 1 project was set up to counteract what he called the "ludicrousness of cyber-war claims by people at high levels in government and industry", he told the audience at the Shmoocon security conference in Washington. Squirrels topped the list with 879 "attacks", followed by birds with 434 attacks and then snakes at 83 attacks.
Those three animals -- along with rats -- have caused 1,700 different power cuts affecting nearly 5,000,000 people .

Comments

He's missing the point.

[Cyberpunk Reality]

Squirrels and birds are never going to scare the public to the point of feeling good about hundreds of billions in spending, or freely abandoning long-cherished rights.

Re:He's missing the point.

[Sarten-X]

Squirrels and birds are also never going to be launching coordinated events designed to overwhelm the utilities' abilities to bypass and repair damage. Nobody cares that a foreign nation might be able to shut down a provider. The concern is that they might shut down all providers.