‘Blackout Warfare’ Document Warns of ‘Devastating Cyber-Attack’ By China, Russia

An official Congressional advisory board has released a document outlining numerous cyber threats posed to the United States and its potential responses to attacks against the electric grid.

The advisory group, a nonprofit organization called the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, is comprised of former intelligence operatives, scientists, and statesmen.

From the group’s website:

The EMP Commissioners and staff included some of our greatest scientists and strategic thinkers, including Dr. John Foster (designed most U.S. nuclear weapons currently deployed), Dr. Lowell Wood (formerly Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the most inventive American in history, holds world record for inventions), Ambassador Henry Cooper (former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative), Dr. Peter V. Pry (formerly with the CIA, currently the Executive Director of Task Force on National and Homeland Security, author of numerous books on national security issues) and many others.

The document in question, released on July 4, 2021, is called “Blackout Warfare – Cyber-Attacking Electric Power Grids: A New Strategic Weapon.”

In the memo, the EMP Task Force concludes that the U.S. faces “imminent danger from a devastating cyberattack against its electric power grid,” most notably from Russia and China.

“Russia is the best prepared to defend against cyber-attack and use cyber as a strategic weapon,” the document states, later citing the recent Colonial pipeline cyberattack.

“During an extreme international crisis, a massive Russian cyber-attack against the entire U.S. electric grid prior to the outbreak of conventional or nuclear war is likely, to deter or defeat the U.S. with ‘grey-zone aggression’ instead of or prior to outbreak of a ‘real shooting war’: consistent with Russia’s military doctrine of Cyber Warfare is an unprecedented and decisive Revolution in Military Affairs.”

Likewise, the document says China is also prepared to launch a “massive cyber-attack” against America prior to a hot war, warning that Chinese Communist agents have embedded themselves into every level of U.S. research and development related to the electric grid.

“China has the money, national laboratory network, trained personnel, and strategic necessity to develop the highest quality cyber-weapons capable of severely disrupting the electrical grid throughout the United States,” the document states.

“The Chinese diaspora in the United States has placed potential Chinese agents into virtually every part of the engineering and R&D associated with the electrical grid.”

In page 13, the document compares “cyber-weapons” to COVID-19.

The most important part of the preparation phase is building the malware (‘cyber-weapon’) that will be used. Cyber weapons are similar to a biological virus; there are two crucial components. A virus such as Covid-19 has two essential elements. First, the RNA to be injected into the cell allowing it to cause replication of the virus itself. Second, a pathway (‘vector ‘) must be available to pass the RNA into the target cell. Any cyber weapon malware also has two essential components.

First is the ‘payload.’ This refers to the [computer] code that will carry out the operations of the malware. In Stuxnet, the payload software was responsible for harming the centrifuges in Natanz, Iran. Second, the ‘Vector.’ This refers to the ‘exploit’ that will be used to inject the damaging code into the target information system. Exploits are a ‘bug’ in the operating system, applications or connected firmware-controlled devices. It can be exploited to sneak in the payload undetected.

Notably, the document was released just days before the deployment of the World Economic Forum’s much-touted Cyber Polygon cyber-warfare simulation.

And despite the fact the Blackout Warfare document warns of an attack from Russia, the country is actually leading the WEF’s Cyber Polygon exercise, which aims to simulate a major supply-chain “cyberpandemic” that could potentially “bring down the entire system.”

What could possibly go wrong?

Read the Blackout Warfare document: