Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath

by Ted Koppel

"A renowned broadcast journalist reports that a major cyberattack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be unimaginably devastating and that the United States is shockingly unprepared."--NoveList.

• ISBN10: 0553419978
• ISBN13: 9780553419979
• Publish Date: 27 October 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

I was excited to order Lights Out, a book about the possible aftermath of a catastrophic attack on the U.S. power grid, but once it arrived I was reluctant to read it.  Why?  Possibly for the same reasons as many officials have for not addressing this threat.  I want to pretend it can't happen.
I was pretty sure that if I read this book that I would turn into some type of disaster prepper.  I already asked for a generator for Christmas (I didn't get it).  The idea of having electricity fail permanently seems like a horror movie for me.  It would be a horror movie for everyone.
The book outlines ways that the grid is vulnerable and ways that it has already been attacked.  It also has interviews with several people and groups who are preparing for disasters in varying ways.  No one seems to be totally prepared though and the book ends with the acknowledgement that we will never be ready.
I will be rereading the preparation chapters again with some notes about things I can start to do to prepare myself for even minor emergencies like power loss due to blizzards.  My goal of off the grid living is far away but this book made me even more serious about wanting to live that way.

I used to live in rural areas where losing power for up to a few days wasn't an abnormal occurrence.  Now I live in the city where it very rarely happens.  It happened this week.  It was almost bedtime anyway so I just went to bed but as I was lying there I had a few minutes of panic.  What if this was it?  What if this was the time it was never going to come back on?  Would I look back on my thoughts while laying in bed like a movie voiceover - "These were the last few hours of living in the world they knew...."  Should I get up and check the internet on my phone to see if there was a catastrophe?  Should I save the power on my phone instead?  I knew reading this book would mess with my head.  (It came back on in less than 2 hours.)

I need a generator and solar panels.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[dpfaef]

Ted Koppel's expose on what will happen when we have a massive failure of the power grid. We all know that this could happen and it would be a disaster, I really didn't need Ted Koppel to tell me that. I think what irks me the most is that power companies are hesitant to do any disaster planning because it affects their bottom line. If the government (by which I mean we the people) force companies to have some sort of disaster recovery, it's called regulation and we have every politician vowing to have it repealed because it is a job killer.

There was something missing from this book. I never watched Nightline so I have not sense of what to expect from Mr. Koppel.This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal