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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 .
Those three animals -- along with rats -- have caused 1,700 different power cuts affecting nearly 5,000,000 people .
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.
Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
You can tell by where they are Putin the acorns.
Table-ized A.I.
Power cuts by drunks running into utility poles? Or idiots shooting out power transformers and insulators? And backhoe operators who don't call first to check for buried utilities?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
.. cause far more outages and damage. Squirrels merely live in trees. Blame the trees.
The number of deaths due to nuclear weapons, as a fraction of total deaths, is very small as well.
Squirrels are just a cost, not a threat. They don't coordinate to attack all at once like a hacker group or hostile country would do. They'll never take out the whole country at once.
They don't want middle eastern muslims to flood the USA and throw them off buildings.
He has a shovel and he's doing his best. He wears one on his head as a trophy.
They are frightening because they make no sense, because of the utter disarray of their existence. “They run around the floors like they’re on crack, and then they die,” he said. “They’re freakin’ crazy, man.” link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12...
Problems like this have existed for decades or more and we know how to prevent it.
It's a business decision whether to invest in prevention, mitigation, both, or neither.
The "foreign government cyber-warfare" problem is less well-understood and is ever-evolving.
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For what it's worth, most "mother nature" problems can be handled by having adequate redundancy and/or backup systems and, for most users, having an expected service level that allows for the grid (or internet, or other utility) to be offline for several seconds at a time while backup systems kick in. A state-level attacker is likely to be aware of the backup systems and attack both simultaneously.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Those are what are known in statistics as "outliers". They can be safely thrown out, unless the conclusion you're after depends on them.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Squirrels are rats with hairy tails, that's all.
My father jokingly called them "tree rats" when I was a kid.
Gonna ignore the pun and tell a short story.
Last summer my wife went outside in the morning and surprised a squirrel that had just dug a hole and was about to drop an acorn in it. It saw her and to hide its actions it started lifting the acorn up and down like a human exercising. Squirrel was totally like, "nothing to see here, just exercising, move along!" LOL
I'd read about the fact that when scrub jays (a natural enemy that eats and hides the same foods) are around they are more careful about their hiding places, and avoid hiding anything when the jay is watching. They're clearly evolving to the ways of humans, though they probably don't realize we're not stealing their food, we just pull up the ones that sprout, and clean the rain gutters seasonally. To them it seems like food competition.
"Rats must chew or their teeth grow through their heads!" - Hemlock Stones in Firesign Theater's - The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra
These growing rodent teeth, just like a dog or cat's claws are relentless. Imagine yourself a rodent with a need to chew- what would you choose? A rock? A discarded piece of fruit? It happens that the insulation used in much wiring is preferred.
I experienced this problem when rodents chose to chew the wiring in my new car at the place I was required to park overnight. It happens that a low tech solution was ideal. I acquired some spongy insulation that is normally used to insulate hot water pipes, and wrapped it around parts of my wiring harness.
The soft foam did not satisfy the chewing urge so the rodents never bothered my car again.
Whether animals or humans create some sort of threat, we should understand their motivations in order to form an ideal response. OFF TOPIC: and when we treat humans badly and expect them to be nice in return we are both blind and stupid.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Nyet!
Moose was sighted standing guard for squirrel!
Both escaped capture and are suspected to be in vicinity of Frostbite Falls.
Consultant Coyote has stated capture repeatedly fails due to lack of complicated schemes and devices to apprehend or annihilate subjects.
Coyote is expecting delivery from Acme Sales Corp. any day now...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office