Cyberattacks & shortages - isolated incidents or test runs?
Months ago I made a video about how we might expect supply chain disruptions from cyberattacks.
Why did I make this prediction?
In 2019, the World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, and other major leaders wealthy elites hosted Event 201 a tabletop simulation to test preparedness for a global pandemic of a respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus.
It now looks to be more and more likely that the lab in Wuhan was working on SARS-CoV-2 prior to this event, and we know China has involvement with the World Economic Forum (Xi was their keynote speaker at their 2020 Davos forum). So question: is it a coincidence that a novel coronavirus leaked from a lab less than a month after elites held a planning session that focused on how to use messaging and media to make people and businesses comply with “public health measures”?
Now, you may not be ready to go with me to “China did this on purpose and the WEF was in on it.” That’s fine. But at least we can acknowledge that maybe the WEF knew something we didn’t, and that the elite billionaires had a chance to prepare that we didn’t have.
This July, many of the same people will be involved in another planning exercise: this one called Cyber Polygon, focused on preparing for a cyberattack on our supply chain.
Now we’ve had two cyberattacks on our supply chain (Colonial Pipeline and now the JBS meat processing plants) within a matter of weeks. The oil pipeline caused short-term outages at gas stations in a particular region of the U.S. We don’t know what the impact of the JBS attack will be yet, but it could be much more widespread.
None of these events have been enough to totally collapse the economy (in order to Reset something, you have to turn it all the way off). Could we be in for another, much bigger attack? Possibly simultaneous attacks on multiple supply chain systems?
My theory - and please note this is just me connecting dots and throwing something at the wall to see if it sticks - is that in order to have a good tabletop exercise, you need data points from real-world events that you can use to build a simulated event.
With Event 201, they could look back to previous pandemics. With the supply chain, they may have found they didn’t have enough real-world examples to build their scenario. After all, it’s only been in the last few decades that our supply chains have been so dependent on internet-connected computerized systems.
If I’m right, this JBS cyberattack will cause short-term, localized shortages of meat in specific regions of the country. We won’t see the true widespread (nationwide or even global), empty shelves, no timeline for restocking kind of shortages until after the Cyber Polygon event in July.
My prediction will be winter. That’s when people are most dependent on the just-in-time delivery system to bring fresh produce from around the world, and energy demands are higher from increased heating and lighting needs.
If I’m right, you have time to prepare. I have time to get more prepared. But we cannot waste this time.
There are different ways you can go about being prepared for these things.
1. Store some extra water and have a way to filter and purify more. Sawyer has a great mini filter that’s good for 100,000 gallons. This way, if water filtration systems fail in your area or you have to find water from other sources, you can still make your water drinkable.
2. Store some extra food. This could mean an emergency food bucket (I’m still trying to find one I really love - Mountain House seems to be one of the good ones), or it can just mean buying a couple extra cans every time you go to the store. Consider learning how to store and preserve food (canning, dehydrating, etc) so you can take fresh foods and put them away for long-term storage. If you always have extra food on hand and use the oldest stuff first, you can always have a buffer of extra food for when the next crisis hits - whatever it may be.
3. If you have any space at all, even a patio or a sunny window, consider growing something that provides food. Anything. If only to have the experience of growing something so you know you could grow more if you had to. If you don’t have yard space for a garden, look for a community garden in your area and get involved. They’re usually happy to teach you the basics, and you often get to borrow tools and other supplies.
4. Move out of the cities if at all possible. When supply chains fail, the cities are the hardest hit. You have high population density and low resource density. We saw last year how even a hint of shortages caused people to fight over toilet paper. What will people do if the shelves are truly empty for weeks?
5. If you have the money and resources, there are some investments you can make now that can pay dividends no matter what crisis comes next. Solar panels, rainwater collection, and buying a freeze dryer are all great preps that make you less dependent on fragile systems.
All of these things are good in general to insulate you against the next financial, political, social, or health crisis that you face. Many of these will even be good for a crisis that just affects you and your family, like a job loss or a major unexpected expense. So even if you think I’m being alarmist about the cyberattacks, even if I’m totally wrong, these steps are still worth following.
But if I’m right, these steps could be the difference between knowing you and your family are safe in a time of crisis and being stuck with your family in a refugee camp waiting on rations from China.
