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

by Ted Koppel

In this tour de force of investigative reporting, Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the United States is shockingly unprepared.
 
Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before. 

It isn’t just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure—and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors—from “hacktivists” to terrorists—have the capability as well. “It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.” 

And yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid.  The current Secretary of Homeland Security suggests keeping a battery-powered radio.

In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. Among the nation’s estimated three million “preppers,” we meet one whose doomsday retreat includes a newly excavated three-acre lake, stocked with fish, and a Wyoming homesteader so self-sufficient that he crafted the thousands of adobe bricks in his house by hand. We also see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company – the fruits of a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?

With urgency and authority, one of our most renowned journalists examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe that is all but inevitable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Science, Technology, Audiobook, Survival, History

279 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2015

About the author

Ted Koppel, a 42-year veteran of ABC News, was anchor and managing editor of Nightline from 1980 to 2005. New York University recently named Koppel one of the top 100 American journalists of the past 100 years. He has won every significant television award, including 8 George Foster Peabody Awards, 11 Overseas Press Club Awards (one more than the previous record holder, Edward R. Murrow), 12 duPont-Columbia Awards, and 42 Emmys. Since 2005 he has served as managing editor of the Discovery Channel, as a news analyst for BBC America, as a special correspondent for Rock Center, and continues to function as commentator and nonfiction book critic at NPR. He has been a contributing columnist to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and is the author the New York Times bestseller Off Camera.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darkness
Extended periods of darkness, longer and more profound than anyone not living in one of America’s great cities has ever known.
As power shuts down there is darkness and the sudden loss of electrical conveniences. As batteries lose power, there is more gradual failure of cell phones, portable radios, and flashlights.
Emergency generators provide pockets of light and power, but there is little running water anywhere…Emergency supplies of bottled water are too scarce to use for anything but drinking, and there is nowhere to replenish the supply. Disposal of human waste becomes an issue within days…. - this goes on quite a bit

Forget the zombie apocalypse. Ted Koppel, a very level-headed newsman, has brought to light a glaring soft spot in our national defense that could very well be exploited by enemies of the USA. And we are not talking about something like the regional blackouts that have already occurred here.

This will not be your father’s blackout, but the sort of scenario long imagined by writers and film-makers with an Armageddon fixation. How would America defend itself against an invasion if major portions of the country had been crippled? Would an enemy even need to invade? Or would it be enough for a dark force to enjoy the sight of the United States of America devolving into tribal packs vying for limited resources in a Mad Max milieu?


Ted Koppel - from The NY Daily News

In Lights Out, Koppel covers a considerable range, looking at the specifics of where the vulnerabilities lie, physically, economically and politically. He talks with military experts in the US Cyber Command, private cyber-security experts, emergency planning experts, power company experts, hackers, insurers, and others. Government cyber-security, for example, is charged with defending military assets, not private ones. What would it mean, constitutionally, were the DoD to be involved in providing domestic security for private companies?

There is scant consolation to be found in the fact that a major attack on the grid hasn’t happened yet. Modified attacks on government, banking, commercial, and infrastructure targets are already occurring daily, and while sufficient motive to take out an electric power grid may be lacking for the moment, capability is not.

And he does not limit his attention to internet-based attacks, offering consideration of other means by which a determined enemy could knock out significant portions of the grid with tech like EMPs, or even well-targeted, garden variety munitions deployed by a small number of special forces type teams. There is evidence that this has already been practiced, by parties unknown.

As with most things, there is little public or industry support for the sort of large-scale work that would need to be done to bolster power grid security, the increase in regulation, and the corresponding erosion of civil liberties that would be entailed. This will continue until an actual attack takes place. Of course by then it would be too late.

A 2008 report predicts that only one in ten Americans would survive a year into a national blackout.

Lights Out gives us some idea of just how uncentralized our electrical system is. Despite our sense that there are only a few large power companies in the country, there are in fact thousands. Add to that companies that distribute power without generating any. It will come as no surprise that one of the major problems is that companies will not, and in many instances cannot, invest in needed security tech, because of the impact on efficiency and profitability. Larger companies could. Smaller ones, often, could not spend the money needed and remain viable. Does this mean that the taxpayer should pick up the tab? Maybe smaller companies should be encouraged to merge with larger power companies in the interest of national security?

That there are vulnerabilities in our infrastructure should come as no surprise to anyone. I doubt that the USA is unique in this, but we tend to ignore problems until they are in our faces. And even then will often seek out short-term amelioration rather than long-term solutions. Cheaper is always better and when things go south, there is always someone else to blame. But one bit of Koppel’s research offered a very large surprise. There is one community in the country that seems up to the challenge, well, not entirely, but to a greater degree than any other group, in government or out. And that is The Church of Latter Day Saints, Mormons to you and me. Koppel spends three chapters looking into their planning for whatever may come. And it is jaw-droppingly impressive. If the big one comes sometime soon, whatever the big one may be, Mitt Romney may get to be president of whatever remains of the United States.

For every fact that Koppel turns up, and there are many, one or more questions are raised, and implications and complications spread out from all of those. There is a vast array of uncertainty in considering how we might keep the lights on when they are attacked, or at the very least how to quickly recover from such an attack.

Q: How likely is an attack on our power grid?
Ted Koppel: Very. When I posed that question to former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, she put the likelihood at 80 or 90 percent. General Lloyd Austin, who currently heads up the U.S. military’s Central Command, told me that it’s not a question of “if, but of when.” Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned of a cyber Pearl Harbor, and President Obama highlighted the threat to our power grid in his 2013 State of the Union address. In short, government and military leaders think it’s likely, and I found no compelling evidence to the contrary. - From A Conversation with Ted Koppel - on his site for the book

Solution-wise, it seems to me that, in addition to developing and installing hardware and software on our power grid control and distribution systems that it designed to thwart hostile actions, there is a clear national security advantage to encouraging the development of decentralized power sources. The national interstate highway system that was proposed in 1944 was inspired by the autobahns of Germany. When General Eisenhower became President Eisenhower, he saw to it that the proposal got funded. One rationale was a need to evacuate cities quickly, should a nuclear attack be expected. Of course, today that notion seems quaint, given how congested our urban roads are in the absence of panic mode. But the roads got built because the nation decided it needed to be done for the common defense. A similar argument might be made to secure the defense of our electric systems.

Unlike any other kind of threat this country has ever faced, it can be very difficult tracking the source, the origin of a cyber attack. Given all of that you might assume that the government has formulated special plans to deal with the aftermath of such an attack. There are plans for hurricanes, and blizzards, and earthquakes, but this would be very different. The power outages caused by a targeted cyber attack would last longer and cover a much wider area than any of those natural disasters. So, is there a plan? No. - from Koppel’s video intro to the book, on his site

If the powers that be ever get around to putting a plan together, it could include a range of options, including supporting research to develop more efficient batteries, supporting research and development in promising renewable energy sources, with a focus on technology that can be implemented broadly, instead of relying primarily on major power plants. It would also be a useful thing for there to be an ability to manufacture transformer station hardware in the USA, something the country currently lacks. Enemies might be able to foul national or regional power distribution and communications, but it might be tougher to switch off every rooftop solar array, or neighborhood windmill. Government support for cyber defense (offense too, as Iran well knows) has already begun with the establishment of the United States Cyber Command in 2009. It seems clear that non-government players will need to be engaged as well to make certain that the USA, which is totally reliant on our electrical and internet infrastructure, keeps a step ahead of those who would do us harm.

…as Mike McConnell [then director of national intelligence] said: ‘For the record, if we were attacked, we would lose.’

Koppel has done the nation a service by bringing this pressing security peril to light. It remains to be seen, of course, whether there is sufficient political will to actually do something about it. How ironic would it be if out power grid were left endangered by political gridlock?

You wanna hit that switch on your way out?


Review first posted – 10/7/2016

Publication dates
----- 10/27/2015 - Hardcover
----- 10/16/2016 - Trade Paper


=============================EXTRA STUFF

FWIW, I had an opportunity to meet my favorite Pennsylvania Senator, Bob Casey, twice during the 2018 election season, quick meet-and-greet situations. In the first, I told him about the book, and related the concerns. In the second, I presented him with a copy, just on the off chance that my initial suggestion had somehow slipped through the cracks. No idea, really, if he ever followed up on that. I have to presume not, as I never heard back. But I hope it took residence in some part of his brain for when related policy discussions take place.



Koppel’s vid intro to the book

The site for the book

In case you missed it in the body of the review, here is the link to the 2008 EMP Commission report that offered a rather grim prediction for one-year blackout survivability

October 8, 2016 - A NY Times article by David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth about possible responses to Russia having hacked our 2016 election, includes relevant items of interest - What Options Does the U.S. Have After Accusing Russia of Hacks?

Russia...turned off the electric grid in part of Ukraine last December, mostly to show that they could.

and

Security experts point to evidence that a well-funded Russian hacking group, known as Energetic Bear, has been probing the networks of power grid operators and energy and oil companies in the United States, Europe and Canada. That could be exploration — or it could be preparation of the battle space in the event of a future conflict.

November 3, 2016 - a NY Times article by John Markoff on a related subject- Why Light Bulbs May Be the Next Hacker Target

July 6, 2017 - NY Times - Hackers are Targeting Nuclear Facilities, Homeland Security Dept. and F.B.I. Say - by Nicole Perlroth


The Wolf Creek Nuclear power plant in Kansas in 2000. The corporation that runs the plant was targeted by hackers. Credit David Eulitt/Capital Journal, via Associated Press
Image was taken from the NY Times article

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightline with Ted Koppel was a show that was on occasionally in my house when I was growing up. My family respected Ted Koppel, so I guess some of that was installed subconsciously in me. (So much stuff got inadvertently crammed into my small mind space-so stop the judging of me)


He has since retired and decided on try his hat as an author. He takes on somewhat the fear of a cyber-attack on America's electric/internet infrastructure. (I say somewhat-because I felt like he just glazed the surface)


The book is broken down into three parts.
A Cyberattack: Where Koppel interviews some of the nations leading security people about the possibility and likely-hood of an attack.
In that aspect I think he comes away with not much info. Some people agree and some just shuffle his questions under the carpet.

He does manage to scare the crap out of me. I read a bunch of these types books. Reasons being-I'm nosey as hell, I want to know all I can. Even if I never (please hope to never) experience anything of the sort. I read lots of different stuff so again, don't go all judgey.
He managed to scare me because he explains how hard it would be to repair the grid after being hit. He explains how FEMA and other disaster relief areas would have to concentrate on bigger cities first.

But that's okay, the people in the cities are the ones that won't be able to get out of elevators, the grocery stores will be looted...etc, etc...

A Nation Unprepared:
This is a small section of the book where Koppel explains that we pretty much need to kiss our arses goodbye.



Surviving the Aftermath:
This part of the book was actually the one that gave me a bit of hope. Koppel goes out and interviews some preppers and some Mormons.
That sounds like an odd combination doesn't it?
Koppel actually made this book very readable and relate-able because he doesn't make fun of either group.
The preppers, He treats with respect. He does stress that not every person can afford to go to some of the extremes that some preppers do. He doesn't recommend trying. To that extreme. He does recommend that you do be prepared for some type of disaster supplies at all times. You just never know.

Then the Church of LDS, he treats this group with respect also. I didn't realize that they stockpile supplies as part of their faith. They actually make it very reasonable to do so. The biggest thing I took away from this book was from this section also. When asked would they help people that turned up at their doors..the church members said yes. Even if they knew they would suffer.
That's the frigging country I want to live in.


In the end of reading this book. My feelings are some small fear of this happening, however, the feeling I get is that we should not. Fear can be a form of terrorism too. I believe in being aware and thinking what can happen. I believe in not being stupid and not having some self reliance skills at your personal inventory. But maybe because I'm older..I'm just not caving in to the fear.

I will add that I'm pretty self reliant. I do and do admit that I think you should have some survival means in place. Don't be completely caught unaware.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for review from Blogging for books.


My super smart friend Tab's review really is what made me want to read this book so much. She always gives me food for thought and our conversations about books always warm my soul. She makes me think. That's a scary thing. :D

[Tom Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my online book collection I have a shelf assigned to dystopian novels such as The Stand, The Walking Dead, and The Day of the Triffids. Once, in a somewhat whimsical mood, I renamed it my we're all gonna die shelf. Lights out, Ted Koppel’s Investigation into the threat that a cyberattack directed against our electrical grid, gets the dubious honor of being the first non-fiction book to be placed on that shelf.

Veteran newsman Koppel, with a consummate skill born of 42 years spent with ABC, lays the groundwork for a story that is every bit as terrifying as anything Stephen King could imagine. What makes Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath all the scarier is that it is not imagination. A week doesn’t go by where we don’t hear about hackers successfully compromising the computer systems of a company or government agency. The second page of the book describes the recent hacking of millions of federal employees' private information. On the very day I started it my wife, a national laboratory employee, received two rejection letters for credit cards she never applied for. As unpleasant as this kind of cyberattack is for us, it is just the tip of the iceberg of what Ted Koppel's book is about.

The first half of the book describes in frightening detail the weaknesses that exist in America’s three major power grids. It tells how likely it is that a concerted attack may black out large parts of the country for months or even years, and how ill-prepared the electrical power industry and the government is to prevent it or deal with the aftermath. If it does happen (and many experts say the word to use is ‘when’) the prediction is that fewer than ten percent of the population would survive a power outage of one year's duration. Solutions have been proposed and legislation has been introduced to address this but, and this should surprise no one, that legislation has never made it out of committee.

The second half of the book is called ‘Surviving the Aftermath’ and addresses how people are preparing for this and other catastrophic events. These options range from renting condos in a repurposed Kansas missile silo to hiring an ex-special forces soldier to hustle your family to a waiting speedboat stored at a secret mooring on the East River for escape to a yacht waiting offshore. About the only thing these plans have in common is that they cost a lot more than the average suburbanite has to spend on post-apocalypse preparation, or anything for that matter. It also devotes three chapters to plans the Church of Latter-day Saints and their comprehensive preparations for disaster. While this provides ideas of what society can do if we work together it gives little in the way of hope for individuals wanting to make preparations themselves.

The bottom line is that we, in pursuit of convenience, economic advantage, and the right to privacy, have created an open door to allow anyone with the know-how and the will to destroy the United States without firing a shot. The ability for hackers to cripple one or more of our three major power grids for an extended period of time already exists.

* The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
•5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
•4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
•3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
•2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
•1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

[Nan Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reminded me of the adage about public
speaking: "tell them what you're going to say; say it; tell them what you just said; and then recap."

Koppel had one thing to say, "the power grid in the US is highly vulnerable to attack." And he said it and said it again and then said it again for about 175 pages. He obviously interviewed a lot of people, all of whom confirmed his fears about our vulnerability, but they all said the same thing.

The last part of the book focused on the Mormons and on their "disaster prepardness" where they, each, have supplies stored for a full year. This doesn't really have anything to do with fears of terrorism, just their own concerns about needing to be prepared for any eventuality. And true to the style of the book, this went on and on and on for the final 60 or 70 pages, rehashing the same thing over and over again.

It was somewhat enlightening, but mostly disappointing due to the repetitive nature of the writing.

[Lilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago. It caused me to intensify my doomsday prepping. (No, I am NOT kidding.) For this and other reasons, I have been so busy that I cannot squeeze the time to write a review. I, therefore, urge everyone to read Will Byrnes brilliant review of this book. Here is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

P.S. After finishing reading the above book, I read "Electric Armageddon", by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry. Dr. Pry's book deals with the same nightmare, that is, the failing of the grid. Yet, other than "Lights Out", which reports about the catastrophe resulting from a software destruction, "Electric Armageddon" reports about the catastrophe resulting from a hardware destruction, caused by an EMP. Both books come to the same conclusion. A failing of the grid (regardless wether caused by a massive cyberattack or a massive EMP) will be The End Of The World As We Know It and is likely to result in the death of 90% of the present American population. People will die the old-fashioned way, that is, by starvation, disease, and societal collapse.

I do not expect that doomsday prepping will let us survive, but I hope that it will let us die a bit more comfortably, that is, with water, some basic supplies, and, not to forget, with toilet paper.

Of all the dangers that we all are presently facing, I thought that a massive cyberattack or EMP were the most likely catastrophe to happen. This was until a few days ago. Following the recent political developments, I now consider a military interaction with North Korea (which might lead to a WWIII) even more likely to happen. I suppose you all are familiar with the topic of the movie "Wag the Dog".


P.S. Dec. 18, 2020:

The recent news of the Russian hacking has initiated me to repost this makeshift review. Make sure you read this book.

[The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, I gave it to a friend, and I wish I had more copies to give away because I shouldn't have to be the only person worried. I think that is the main purpose of this book - to make a critical mass of people concerned about a possibly devastating cyberattack on our electric grid. It would seem wise to be extremely proactive about this. My takeaway is that we as a nation are pathetically unprepared in areas of both prevention and recovery. Sure Mormons, people in rural areas and people with guns may fare slightly better than the rest of us, at least over the short term. However, it would be pretty naive to conclude that you could stockpile or shoot your way out of the results of a cyberattack that shuts down a significant portion of our electric grid. Koppel does not make this conclusion.

The book covers what constitutes a cyberattack, attacks that we have already experienced and vulnerabilities in our electric grid. It also touches on who might have the capability and motivation to stage a cyberattack. Although this is a short book, some of the discussion seemed repetitive, and I thought too much time was devoted to the preparedness of the Mormons.

By end of the book, I was mostly resigned that if there is a cyberattack I will probably die because the government will not save me, and I am really ill equipped to fight other people for food, so my cats and I will just starve to death. I think this is a well-researched and important book and I hope it does some good, but I'm not optimistic.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Randal White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frightening! Frightening! Through the use of extensive interviews, Koppel illustrates how fragile the infrastructure of our power grid really is. Whether through cyberterrorism or a physical act of terrorism, we are at risk for a major disruption to our system. Koppel explains how the interruption will be much worse than a mere days long period, and how it may stretch up to a year or more. He also points out the "head-in-the-sand" mentality of our government officials to the issue. Let's hope this book brings about some much needed change to our way of thinking! Excellent book. (I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review).

[Grumpus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good to hear Ted Koppel’s voice again, but oh God, please don’t let something like this happen. No electricity. No internet. No Goodreads!

Seriously, according to the book it is estimated that only 1 in 10 Americans would survive a year without electricity. Imagine all the equipment the infirmed require, imagine all the refrigeration required for food and drugs, imagine not being able to pump gas, imagine no generators for lack of fuel, no heat, no air conditioning, no flushing toilets, disease becomes rampant. Gangs would rule, as starving people fight each other in a life and death battle for limited resources. Civilization as we know it would likely breakdown completely.

William R. Forstchen wrote a “fiction” account of just this scenario in his book One Second After. The story details the impact of an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) that takes down the electric system as opposed to hackers in Ted Koppel’s account. In either case, communication is completely disrupted so that the people cannot obtain information as to what is happening or what should be done. Forstchen’s account was so realistic that it was one of those books that disturb you to the point that you cannot help but stress over how you would protect your family if this would ever happen. I will admit it did keep me awake at night and Koppel’s hypothetical account only exacerbates that fear.

So, what is the government doing? There are no plans for a "speculative attack" and through many interviews with government officials, it is clear there is no organized plan. They say that there are no coordinated efforts because it is “unlikely to happen”. The government references Hurricane Sandy where large areas were impacted, yet the situation did not descend into chaos, so relax America. However, it should be noted that storms do not deliberately target the electric grid’s critical weaknesses, cyber-attacks do.

It was pointed out that the Internet was designed to be collaborative, not to keep people out. In fact, it is believed that both the Russians and the Chinese are already in the grid, and we are likely in theirs. Like a nuclear war that would assure the mutual destruction of the attacking and retaliating countries, taking down each other’s electric grids would have the same impact. Governments therefore, are unlikely to be the culprits. The Internet makes it easy to disguise from where an attack originated making it nearly impossible to place blame. As a result, an attack can come from anywhere, not necessarily from a formal government. That's the danger--we are susceptible to any individual with access to the web.

Everyday life is literally dependent upon electricity; electricity that is vulnerable. I found it extremely disturbing to learn how at risk we are and how even if individuals are prepared for this scenario with stores of supplies, they too would likely not survive as we regress back to survival of the fittest—or those with weapons and the willingness to use them. Welcome to the Stone Age. Scary.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advanced reading copy review Due to be published October 27, 2015

Ted Koppel is known to most Americans as the anchor of Nightline (ABC News) for 25 years. In "Lights Out" he uses his journalism skills to alert us to perhaps the greatest current threat to America's security, cyber-terrorism. While the emphasis is on hackers bringing down our power grid, he also warns about attacks on our water systems, nuclear power plants and other potentially disastrous weak points in our infrastructure that are controlled by computers. It is a very frightening prospect. Many communities can survive for a few days or weeks without power, but the worst case scenario is not getting back online for months or years. Would America, or any other country, be able to survive without massive loss of life or societal breakdown? The answer is "yes" but only with proper planning and foresight.

Mr. Koppel shows us individuals and entire communities that are preparing for the worst, but it won't be enough if millions are suddenly without the basics of survival. He tells us how every individual should take some responsibility for having a disaster plan. All of this is presented logically and without hysterics. It all makes a lot of sense and had me thinking about how I could prepare for long-term survival in my small NY apartment. Make no mistake, this is not an optimistic book but it is necessary to help provoke us into action.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very informative and enlightening. I took my time reading this boo only because I wanted to digest the information that was in this book longer. Mr. Koppel brings the news to you and does not stray from it. Anyone interested and intrigued by world events or the cyber world will find this book a great read. I was drawn in by Mr. Koppel's writing. Also, I found his interviews with people fascinating. It did not seem like the things the people said were edited to the point that you could read this information on the internet and I did not feel like I was shorted by facts.

In fact, the more that I read the more I realized that sometimes not knowing is living in happy bliss. What I mean by this is that when you don't know everything that is going on behind the scenes like a movie than you still enjoy that movie but how many times have you read about the way a movie was made and maybe your perspective about that movie was changed. All I have to say is that "Zombies" are not the thing that we need to fear but a cyberattack. Which the government already is aware of could happen and they have prepared while the rest of the world is living in "happy bliss".

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's this book in a nutshell: "The nation's power grid is woefully unprotected and unprepared for a direct assault, especially through a cyber attack." Most of the rest of the book is rehashing this thesis with various data points and interviews with cyber warfare and electrical production experts. Oh, and Mormon preparation for the collapse.

It's not a bad book, by any means. My biggest issue isn't the fact that the author details the many ways in which our power grid is unsecure, it's that he doesn't really provide or suggest anything to make it secure. How about asking some of the aforementioned experts what they would/should/could do to protect this incredibly important resource?

This is a good starting point if you are interested in researching the causes of the potential collapse of our civilization, but it's not a good end point. Look elsewhere if you want to find answers to the problem.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a frightening book and I hope it never comes true. Ted Koppel, a well known journalist, attempts to show readers about the dangers to the power grid and how unprepared the government and utility corporations are in stopping an attack on the power grid and what happens to the country if it is prolonged.

Koppel tells the story as a journalist but because of the complexity of the subject it might have been better told as an analyst. I felt that Koppel wandered off topic frequently and the book would have been better if it stayed on topic and was more concise. Koppel writes about a very important topic and the dangers are real and the aftermath could be disastrous to America. We are too dependent on the power grid and maybe we should explore ways for each business and home to become independent of the grid if necessary. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Ted Koppel narrated his own book.

[Furrawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, erudite, and a tremendous amount of interviewing and research went into this book. I think he missed an important chapter on alternative forms of power like solar that would have been helpful. He does mention a wind turbine etc, but it seemed to be a fringe thing.

Koppel makes a compelling argument for the need to plan for a cyberattack on our electric grid. He goes to military and home land security folks. They all say we're vulnerable. If such an attack happens, the country is not equipped to manage the aftermath at all. There's food for a few days. Running water after a few days, in most places, is dependent upon electricity.

We need some sort of plan in place. We need legislation to pass on this. We need to care about this as a nation.

Sadly, two years since this book was written, and we're no closer to a plan.

Koppel's chapter about his memories in the U.K. during WWII were a splendid and charming read. I, for one, wish he'd write an autobiography.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The power in my house briefly went out as I was wrapping up chapter 16. Not kidding. It was only about 2 seconds, but since this never happens here (coupled obviously with the content of the book), it concerned the crap out me. Thanks Ted Koppel, I'll never sleep again.

I can't give this book a top rating because it didn't really have an ending. Unless I missed it, there was no real solution or call to action. Even most climate change books that I've read have some slim optimistic actionable item(s). So from a real-life standpoint, you'd have to give this work low marks citing the hours of lost time telling me about a problem that is (a) likely to happen, (b) completely out of my control, and will (c) probably kill me.

From a literary standpoint though, this was very good. It was well written, thoroughly researched, and enormously engaging. I'll chip in four stars.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Late on the afternoon of Tuesday, 17 November 2015, at the height of a terrific windstorm here in Spokane, Washington, we lost power. It didn't come back until around noon on Sunday, the 22nd. Five days without electricity and so without heat, refrigeration, hot water, cooking, or lights. What's more, since the outage was so widespread there were no gas stations, grocery stores, doctor’s offices, pharmacies, restaurants, or other businesses open. City hall, schools, and even the library were closed.

Police, fire stations, traffic signals, some stores, and a few private homes were running on generators, but they couldn't be relied on for too long and in some cases, including a few of the ones running essential traffic lights, they were stolen.

Avista, our power company - formerly Washington Water Power because that's where most of our electricity comes from, dams on our powerful western rivers - well, they did a really good job, having planned for this, learning a good deal from the last major outage in 1996 when Spokane had a very bad ice storm. Avista has online maps where every downed line is shown, along with how many people are affected by it. Our immediate outage was caused by a large Ponderosa pine down at the corner of Bernard and 22nd Avenue and I think 8 houses lost power because of that incident. But there was no power arriving at that corner because so many other trees - thousands of them in Spokane County - were down on other lines bringing electricity from the main distribution spots. Teams of linemen came in from nearby: Oregon, Montana, Canada. And even some from Arizona and elsewhere drove up here to help. Hundreds of men were out in the cold for days (and nights) repairing downed lines.

Meanwhile, it was very cold and getting colder and we stuck it out two nights in our increasingly cold house. When the overnight lows were expected to be in the teens we turned on the faucets so the pipes wouldn't freeze. Wilhelm's dad, who is in his 90s, was in the same chilly boat but his situation was complicated by a clogged drain so he couldn't turn on the faucets.

Fortunately, because there is a fire station a couple of blocks down the hill, the folks on the other side of our street got their power back quickly - on early Thursday morning. And my friend Elaine's parents invited us all (Wilhelm and me, Dad, and our two cats) to stay with them for the duration. Think of it - inviting three people into your home, with cats although someone in the household is allergic to cats, sleeping on the floor so your guests could have the beds. Let me repeat that. Sleeping on the floor.

Such is our community that almost everyone on the south side of our street stayed with neighbors on the north side or with other friends further north in the area where power had been restored. One woman went off to Colville where the wind storm was nothing like what it was in Spokane, and some folks stayed in the Davenport Hotel for a couple of nights. (Their chickens were not so lucky, though they made it through the outage ok.) We were invited to two dinner parties designed either to eat up food before it had a chance to go bad without a fridge to keep it in or to provide us with a hot, nutritious meal when we were unable to find one except at the schools that were opened as warming centers and were serving what would have been the kids' cafeteria lunches. Some of the libraries opened fairly quickly and they provided the electricity to recharge phones and laptops as well as information about where to go to fill various needs, computers to bring up maps showing where Avista was working and what their estimates were for returning utilities. They even showed the Seattle Seahawks' football game on a large screen on Sunday.

And so we got through it, using candles and Coleman lanterns, generators and generosity, city resources and the help of our friends.

But just think what things would be like if this were not a Spokane County outage, but a regional one that stretched from Seattle to Minneapolis, from the Canadian border to San Francisco. And if the problem wasn't downed power lines but malevolent interference with the computerized systems that control the power grid. If the power were out not just for a week or two but for months.

This is the scenario Ted Koppel addresses in his book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath. His book is important because, as he points out, our power grid is vulnerable. Insufficient protection is in place to prevent ISIS or Iran hacking in and taking down a segment of the power we need for our 21st century lives. Not just some schools and libraries, restaurants and grocery stores, businesses and homes – but all of them. Not just in one city and county but across a dozen states or more. And not just for a week but for an indefinite period.

Lights Out describes our vulnerability, our dismal situation in the aftermath of an intentional power outage, and finally, what we can do now to anticipate and perhaps forestall such a catastrophe.

Every week or so I see a new poll asking people what’s the most significant threat we face these days. Global warming, unchecked and unmonitored immigration, gun violence, the spread of bird flu – all of these find their way to the top of the list over time.

But actually the most serious problem we have is what Ted Koppel describes. Insufficient safeguards and planning to prevent the loss of the power that runs our world. Meanwhile Congress dithers.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's November 4, 2020. Votes are still being counted and the COVID 19 counts keep going higher. It's been a heckuva year and we haven't even staggered through the holidays yet.

Casting our eyes about at the civil unrest that has been ongoing for months, weighing the fact that we live about an hour from DC, along two freeways that feed into the big urban areas, thinking about the fires that are still burning, the crazy hurricane season this year, even some little earthquakes in unexpected places, and observing the fact that our grocery stores still have empty places on the shelves, my husband and I decided it might be a good idea to lay in a few supplies. Who knows what will happen in the wake of this election and a bleak COVID winter is forecast, both of which could interrupt supply chains ... and maybe make us want to stay home more than usual, even as we have grown really tired of staying home.

We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka LDS or Mormons, and have always worked toward having food storage and some other emergency supplies. It's come in quite handy a number of times. It's helped us through times of unemployment, stretched our budget when we've had big unexpected expenses, it's fed our adult children when money has been short for them, it's meant we didn't have to go to the grocery store when someone was sick (even in The Before Times this was a nice thing to not worry about). I've never had to run out at 11 o'clock at night to buy supplies to make treats for Cub Scouts or the baseball team, and yes, we have encountered a few natural disasters that emptied the grocery store shelves very quickly and left us without power for 4 days, our personal best power outage score. We can be pretty self reliant, but just less than three years ago we made a cross country move from Oregon to Virginia and gave away almost all of our stored food and supplies. We have been shopping sales to slowly build that supply back up and a friend out here moved last fall and passed along a few things, bolstering our stores, but we've never had so little in the freezer or on our shelves. Then COVID and unemployment struck and we've once again dipped into our supplies.

However, as I said, about two months ago we thought it might be prudent to prepare and last Saturday we met our "let's be as prepared as we can for the Zombie Apocalypse" goal. Which dovetailed nicely with Lights Out arriving at the top of my library requests list. Apparently I am not the only one in our little county thinking about this topic. If you're interested I can tell you what we did in the comments but I'll just get on with my review here. And there are many more in depth reviews out there, if this is a topic that interests you, check some of them out.

In the first half of the book Koppel does a good job of pitching the possibility of a cyber attack on our electrical grid. And without electricity not much happens these days. The nation would soon encounter problems with food supplies, no refrigeration, lack of heating or cooling (oh please, if the grid has to fail let it not be in high summer, life without AC is not life for me), medications would quickly become unavailable ... let's just say the shortages of TP and cleaning supplies last spring would be remembered fondly as the good old days when that was our only waste disposal problem. Because no electric equals no water in most places. Generators are grand for short term use but who can store enough fuel to keep them running for long, not us. And no electricity means no fuel is pumped.

Scary to contemplate in large measure because although this is a real possibility there doesn't seem to be much in place as to how to get things back up and running. Lights Out was written five years ago and I think our recent experiences have highlighted the importance of having plans in place for disasters. And this would be a whopper.

The second half of the book covers surviving such an event. Koppel interviews preppers, Mormons, and some folks in Wyoming, where being self reliant and independent is just part of the beautiful landscape, all of whom he treats with respect. He explores our dependence on the Red Cross, FEMA, and other agencies. The section on trying to get through to FEMA (Press 6 if You've Been Affected) was startling. Keep in mind, no power, no cell phones in pretty short order. All of this combined to reinforce my ideas about being prepared to the extent that you can. What that looks like will differ widely based on where you live, your finances, and the amount of space in your home to store things, but it is important to remember that it is unlikely the cavalry will be arriving any time soon (remember Katrina). FEMA and other agency recommendations have long recommended having a 3 day supply of food and water plus some basic first aid supplies, flashlights, battery operated radio etc. And here let me insert an additional precaution in the voice of my dad: "It doesn't cost any more to drive off the top half of the gas tank than the bottom half, there is no reason to risk running out of gas."

One of the most important take-aways from all this talk of preparing and survival is the need to be mentally prepared, to acquire some useful skills, but above all the importance of community. We live in a time where many of us hardly know our neighbors and that is not only sad but the ability to share resources and skill sets could make all the difference in survival (I feel a little like a crazy person saying survival but there you have it). And yes, if you show up at my door I will share my food, water from the well, firewood, candles, soap, bleach, even my books, old fashioned board games, and puzzles. Toilet paper is strictly on a barter basis though;-)

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lights Out was a fascinating -- if terrifying -- expose on the possibility and repercussions of a terrorist cyberattack on the U.S. power grid. Ted Koppel explains the weaknesses in our power grid system and lists the many terrorist organizations that could attack the U.S. in this manner.

Few people realize how devastating it would be to have the power cut over a large block of states for a period of weeks or longer. Not only would the lights and heat go out, but people's access to water, food, and sanitation --especially in urban areas -- would be severely compromised. Very few are prepared for such a scenario.

Koppel also interviews "preppers" and early adopters, and provides an intimate look into the preparededness of the Mormon church. A very interesting read which definitely caused me to evaluate my Doomsday Supplies. (I won this book on Goodreads as a First Reads Giveaway).

[Luke Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covering a great many issues with the objectivity gained by a lifetime of asking the right questions, Ted Koppel's Lights Out is a must read for every citizen of the United States of America. Leaving no stone unturned in his exposition, Koppel provides both technical analysis and colorful anecdotes, as well as his testimony enduring the Blitz as a child in the epilogue. Carefully researched and taken from Koppel's interviews with everybody from former military generals to electric company executives to cybersecurity experts, this well made book about darkness covering the United States is enlightening, to say the least.

[Trish]

Just couldn't do it. This was available at my library when other things I wanted were not. It just kills me. What is it about these OWGs who retire and then say, "oh wait--you guys are going to get TOTALLY screwed very soon...it's C-O-M-M-M-I-N-G." Why didn't they think about that while they were working, when they should have been thinking and doing something about it? I'm talking about the same OWGs who brought us climate change and water restrictions...they made their money and had a wild time. What I want to say now is sit down, grandpa. When the sky falls, it's us who'll be picking up the pieces, so shut it. I think it was his dolorous tone....

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is the sky falling?

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book appears to have lost none of its validity ten years after it appeared. This book tells several stories: U.S. vulnerability to a cyberattack on its electric grids, why so little has been done to prevent it or to prepare for its aftermath, and what citizens are doing to survive its aftermath, in a general sense (a history of prepping and, particularly, of Mormon prepping, a story in itself). For my taste, there are too many interviews and, therefore, too much repetition, but otherwise this is an eye-opening book that shows the weaknesses of our public-private system, our planning, our fears, and our narrow concept of war at a time when the concept of war is broadening every day.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for its importance, and four stars for dragging a bit with lots of descriptions of (useless) agencies and government officials, and interviews of rural folks and Mormons. Of course, if I wanted a page-turner, I'd read "One Second After" about a fictional EMP attack (same effect on the grid), though the movie trailer looks pretty ridiculous. If you don't know what an EMP attack is, you should probably Google it now because after it hits you won't be able to.

There are a lot of "prepper" books out there and I've read a number of them. But this was not a "prepper" book, at least not with instructions. It was more like a warning -- a warning about something that virtually no one is planning for, including the government... if planning is even possible. Lose power for a few weeks? Okay. A few months? Darn! For years? Yikes! But that's okay -- I ordered more manual can openers!

Spoiler alert: "For the first time in the history of warfare, governments need to worry about force projection by individual laptop. ...the Internet, among its many, many virtues, is also a weapon of mass destruction."

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is fairly self-explanatory. No magic monkeys, no miniature unicorns, but there are PWGs (preppers with guns). Ted Koppel presents the likeliness of a cyber-attack cutting our power grid and what would happen.

Yes, this will make you paranoid. And yes, it made me buy an emergency radio with a nifty crank... just in case.

Koppel scares the pants off his readers by showing how vulnerable our power grid is, how it has already been tampered with, and what might happen if we are hit. The subject itself is sprawling, and while Koppel provides some interesting interviews with people in the government, these interviewees feel almost intentionally vague.

Personally, I found the section dealing with the aftermath to be more engaging. The reality is we citizens can't make our power grid safer since this requires our government to actually work..... I know. But Koppel does show the reader what they can reasonably do to help themselves.

Learning about preppers and the Mormons and their storage systems was a nice touch. Truth is, most of us aren't going to move to the middle of no where, shoot our way out of the aftermath, or slip into the massive food stockpiles where we will hunker till the outside is all better

My advice is not to let this frighten you into paralysis, but rather allow it to inform you to what may happen.

Audiobook: Ted Koppel narrates his own audiobook, and I feel he does a nice job. His voice is pleasing, and while his delivery is a little deliberate, it's not so much that it tears you out of the subject. I'll admit to speeding it up in certain parts, but I think the audiobook is a nice way to go.

[Dannalie Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wavered between a 2 and 3 star rating on this one. On the one hand, Ted Koppel's argument--that a cyberattack could knock out one or multiple power grids, plunging a large part of the country in darkness and displacing people and resources--is compelling and, quite frankly, surprising that it hasn't happened yet. The world is full of sh*ts who are smart enough to pull this off, in my opinion. On the other hand, I felt pretty dumb and slightly talked down to while reading. It just wasn't accessible to little ol English major me--almost felt like he was talking to his own generation, WWII vets who pronounce the H in "white." Which is interesting that he managed to alienate me in that way, considering the subject is far from WWII era stuff.
Either way, main thing I learned from this book: I would fare very poorly during a real-life post apocalyptic situation. Whelp, guess all that dystopian YA I read was for naught...

[Tulay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ted Koppel did excellent research and interviews, this could happen we know it. Saw it in the news and read stories about what happened in Louisiana, how our government handles disasters. In person I saw it in New Jersey, after the hurricane Sandy. How Red Cross and Coast guard was riding around, but couldn't get any help from them.
This book should open our eyes, we have to be prepared to cope with any kind of disaster. Only communities that is really prepared are Amish and Morman, why can't the government learn from those people.
Got this book from Audible, must be read by everyone.

[Jack Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of technical disasters that could befall the First World countries, particularly the U.S.
A long period without electricity would put everyone's attitude under major adjustment.... those who survived, at least.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy an occasional foray into exploring the real potential of societal cataclysm and this book certainly checked that box. I personally have virtually no way of verifying most of the information Koppel gathered for this work, especially as it relates to the cyber security of the nation's power grid. But one really doesn't need facts to think about the immediate and long term crippling consequences of a protracted, widespread power outage. YIKES.

How likely this is to become an actuality I have no way of predicting, and in truth there is probably very little I could do to prepare myself for that type of event. However, it has prompted me to think about general short term disaster preparedness, which I could, quite truthfully, do better. Depending on how crazy my schedule is, on a given week I may not have even a 3 day food supply on hand. I've been a grad student for most of my adult life and in the event of emergency I knew that the University would offer shelter and assistance. Now as a new homeowner and working adult, I am realizing that 1) Winter is coming; and 2) I cannot nor should I be reliant on outside assistance - it is time to tuck away some extra supplies to sustain me for at least a week.

Why I haven't taken this simple step of laying aside some extra food is a bit odd, because I have always devoted a healthy portion on my brain to "What-if?" scenarios. When purchasing my property, I specifically sought a house that could be heated by wood and have an outside source of water, which is more than most urban and suburban dwellings offer. And it's not because (unlike before as a full-time grad student) that I lack the resources and space to do so, but because I simply haven't taken the time or given thought to creating and organizing a sensible and simple system of food storage and rotation. Liberal though I am, I have no anticipation that the local, state, or federal governments would be prepared to immediately assist me with a major crisis and I have no expectation that this is their job for a short term event.

Sadly, Koppel underscores that I am quite typical of the average American who has been lulled into complacency by a complex network of systems that work reliably. But it is electricity that keeps these networks running, and how many of us are actually prepared for even a short term (say 2 week) power failure? Storms and high wind events that might temporarily sever power are at least moderately predictable and give us time to prepare, but imagine the panic that would ensue if a large chunk of or the entire nation had no warning to 'get the bread and milk' (the two most iconic, though least useful pantry staples) before the power went off for a month, 6 months, or years? The entire foundations of our constructed world would surely topple into anarchy after a few days - Hurricane Katrina certainly gave us all of the insight we need to believe the worst of desperate humans. I will most likely never go 'full-on prepper", but Koppel's work has inspired me to at least do a better job at covering the basics for short term crises.

I highly recommend this work to anyone, especially those who enjoy thinking about worst-case scenarios. However, don't expect to get specific guidance in any more than a tangential way about what to do in the event of an emergency from this book - this isn't Koppel's aim.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non fiction>disaster preparedness, 4 Stars
Koppel definitely does a great job discussing the possibility of the US losing electricity. Personally, I've considered this possibility more as a result of EMP than a cyber attack, but the result is pretty much the same.
I enjoyed the chapters on Mormon preparedness...I knew some of it but never knew the full extent or reasoning behind it.
I kind of noticed that the NYC chapters that reference incidents that have already been "survived" were greatly helped by unaffected states and regions... if something happens that is more widespread than a coastal hurricane those regions would presumably help themselves first (as they should). People need to be responsible for themselves to a degree (a large degree) and if something happened to the whole country I suspect that the subcultures and regions with people who depend on themselves will be the survivors, and not those who are expecting "the government" to fix it. I mean, if you're so picky about your food that you can't eat a sandwich someone prepared for you then you should probably stock up on your own food. That's the difference between the NYC people and the Wyoming people discussed in the book.
Of course, hopefully we never have to find out how it will go.
Koppel refers to One Second After a few times, a fiction about this topic which I have read and enjoyed.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite our "deep seated fascination with our own annihilation" (evidenced by pop culture overflowing with nightmarish doomsday scenarios in which humanity has to adapt to a post-apocalyptic way of life), there is a frighteningly realistic threat we have little-to-no preparation for: a cyberattack knocking out an electrical grid. It seems part of the purpose of this book is laying the groundwork for Koppel to be able to look back and say "HA! TOLD YA SO" when it inevitably goes down, because chapter after chapter just sets in stone why actually preparing for such an event is impractical / uneconomical / too monstrous an undertaking to even attempt. Though I guess to give him the benefit of the doubt, another underlying message is that self-reliance and individual preparedness are crucial during massive catastrophes - after all there is only so much the government can be expected to shoulder when a huge chunk of the country goes dark (did you know there are only THREE interconnected grids to serve the contiguous US?) This book also does an excellent job at breaking down the evolution of cyberthreats. This isn't the same type of stand-off as the Cold War, the main "enemies" aren't necessarily other nationstates with plenty to lose in a global conflict. It's the rogue terrorist groups we should be worried about. 3.5 stars because I think about half of the chapters could have been condensed rather than renumerating the same general ideas over and over. The other half though, excellent reporting.