...or "Ways to Keep Japan and the Republic of Korea on the Sidelines of a US-China Fight".

IAEA chief: Nuclear power plant was disrupted by cyber attack

Yahoo Finance has the story.   Worth the read, and the read between the lines.  

BERLIN (Reuters) - A nuclear power plant became the target of a disruptive cyber attack two to three years ago, and there is a serious threat of militant attacks on such plants, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

We would do well to remember that this "Phase Zero" nonsense is a US joint military construct which will not be politely observed by our adversaries, no matter whom they be, or where they are.   Asymmetry, however, is fully embraced by nation-states and non-state entities alike.  (URR here.) 

Comments

[Jeff Gauch]

I once did the math on a dirty bomb and realized that it's one of those things we want the terrorists to keep working on. If you're in the affected zone, keep calm, wash your hands and face often, minimize how much you eat and drink from the affected zone, and calmly leave. If you do all that and get out within a week or so your increased risk is exactly zero.

The cyber attack on the nuclear plant probably went after the plant monitoring software, making it less convenient to monitor plant parameters.

Security experts say blowing up a nuclear reactor is beyond the skills of militant groups, but the nuclear industry has some vulnerabilities that could be exploited.

Yes, because militant groups are limited by the laws of physics. It's impossible to blow up a nuclear reactor, though some steam explosions can get pretty energetic (hence the containment vessels all western reactors are equipped with). The absolute worst thing a militant group could do is cause a meltdown, and that assumes that the staff of the plant are completely inert for hours.

[ultimaratioregis]

Yeah, dirty bomb is a panic-seed. Meltdown not terribly likely, either. But cities going gray, dark, well then. And the disinformation from our oh-so-reliable and knowledgeable MSM would never, ever cause panic or a diplo crisis.

[Heltau]

Waite until hilldabeast gets in then we will lose a couple of cities to dirty bombs from islam and north korea.
Be interesting to see if hilldabeast answers that 0300 call from someone from somewhere. Then find out what she does.

[ron snyder]

Confess that I am not a SME, but my impression is that an EMP is one of the more dangerous scenarios that we face (in terms of impact).

[timactual]

Why would we want to keep S. Korea and Japan on the sidelines in a US-China conflict? Would it even be possible?

[ultimaratioregis]

@timactual,

Not us. PRC turning up the heat by cyber means.

[timactual]

Since most, if not all, of our forces in the region are based in S. Korea and Japan (including Okinawa) I don't see how the Chinese could ignore them. Either they give our forces a safe haven in Korea and Japan or they attack their territory, dragging them into the fight.