The danger of a Russian cyber attack is not to your personal computer, but to the larger utilities like the power grid, water systems, banking, the things that can really disrupt every day life for US citizens. So many things are now controlled by computer systems rather than actual on site operators that it is a very real danger.
Beau of the Fifth Column has been good at giving information about the war, and I trust his video on the subject:
This isn’t a hot war, so the targets are lower tier. Someone in the comments summarized his recommendations as follows:
- Keep a little cash on you
- Get gas. Top off your tanks
- Get needed prescriptions filled
- Print out any essential docs
I’d add “don’t panic if you lose access to information for a bit.”
I am also worried about a “Carrington event” Carrington Event - Wikipedia which could take down the whole electrical system and internet for weeks or more.
Beau has covered that one, too. It could do all that, but we have early warning satellites and a playbook on how to handle it. Sure, the amount of warning may not be high, but what we have to do to mitigate the issue is fairly simple: we shut everything off. And it would most likely only last four days.
Of course, we had a playbook on how to handle pandemics, and we didn’t follow that. And a lot of people refused to do their part then, too.