Shira Obide’s Feb. 26 Tech Friend column, “Should I keep my landline for emergencies?” summarizes the larger question about protecting critical infrastructure in the event of a national crisis. Masu. Moving all operations to a computerized electrical grid further increases national security vulnerabilities.
my family depended on something Use traditional landlines as a communications backup during power outages. That was until Verizon connected our landlines to a single Fios box that served our home. Currently, our landline can only (optimistically) provide phone service for 2 hours if: It loses electricity and becomes useless as a replacement for a cell phone.
Electric vehicles bring us closer than ever to relying on electric infrastructure for all basic necessities. At a macro level, power grids are essential to governance systems and critical defense infrastructure.
Fortunately, by the 2020 election, most Americans will vote on paper ballots to ensure the security of national elections, verify computerized election tallies, and conduct post-election audits. I have come to understand that it is essential. Hopefully, dedicated and brilliant human minds will work to create redundancy in other critical infrastructure systems that rely on the power grid as well.