The Internet is about 20 years old, yet we depend on it as if it was an amendment under the Bill of Rights. It has given a quantum leap in knowledge to half of the world’s population. Probably each one of us is concerned about content, speed and how it changes all facets of our lives including our jobs. The pace of change seems to be accelerating.
I have taken very small excerpts from the well written articles listed below. They are probably the most frightening articles I have read in 10 years. We can safely presume many more hacks and viruses have made their way into our computers without becoming public knowledge. The full articles below are available on Wired Magazine and the Wall Street Journal online or mobile. Search the title and publisher for the full article (a subscription may be required to view the full articles).
The . . . hackers . . . broke into supposedly secure, “air-gapped or isolated networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of key vendors. . . “They got to the point where they could have thrown switches” and disrupted power flows, . . .
The Code That Crashed the World, Wired Magazine
Ukraine and Russia have been in an undeclared war for five years. Bent on destruction Russia released a fast spreading malware called “NotPetya” along with a penetration tool called “EternalBlue” created by the NSA. Maersks, one of the top shipping companies in the world, operates in 130 countries was an unintentional victim when it spread to their computers:
I saw a wave of screens turning black. Black, black, black. The digital phones in every cubicle too, had been rendered useless . . . stopped to refuel his car and found that the gas station’s credit card payment system had been taken out by NotPetya too. . . “They couldn’t get their containers in and out of the gate . . . Soon hundreds of 18-wheelers were backed up in a line that stretched for miles outside the terminal. . . The result was more than $10 billion in total damages . . .
What happens if the Internet stops?
I would imagine a small population segment will go into a catatonic state until it is fixed. There will probably be no GPS so planes will land and drivers will get lost. All systems associated with a computer network are subject to at least a temporary failure. The intentional destruction of war has been part of history for thousands of years. The next war will be likely centered around hacks, viruses, and destruction of the internet and satellites.
I have visited Russia and love the country and the people I met. They have a huge heart produced by sorrow and tragedy we can only imagine by studying history. You can safely assume that hacking isn’t limited to one country. The U.S., China, North Korea and many more countries are quite talented when it comes to manipulating the Internet and its dependencies.
All radio is critically important until we have weathered a few major Internet failures and the already identified threats have been successfully mended. In the meantime, I would follow FEMA’s survival check list. I would also have a CC Skywave SSB radio because it has Single Side Band which works for long distance listening when everything else is down. This is the root reason the SSB model was developed. It also gets your local stations, weather, aviation and shortwave.
Do you have a plan if the Internet goes down? Please share in the comments below some thoughtful tips with others.
Although we are hugely dependent on the Internet, I don’t think losing it will mean the end of the world. It will mean focusing back on your immediate environment — not the global one we’re now a part of — and “falling back” on doing things the old way, more self-reliant. I do agree that broadcast radio would re-emerge as the dominant medium, which is why we need radio suppliers like C.Crane to keep doing what they do!
I’m with awenner1. You struck it right on the head! I’ve been a ham radio operator now for 47 years. Can run off batteries if need be, and they are solar powered and up to snuff at all times! I’m also a home gardener. I keep plenty of fresh and stored veggies on the shelf at all times. Not really a prepper, but just the same, prepared. Thanks for the comments!
Have a list of account numbers along with telephone numbers.for your various accounts. Make sure you record all needed pins to access them. Last, keep the list in a secure location.p
That’s why a space force is so important … Some say its about aliens so they can joke about it but the reality is that it’s for defending our satellites and critical infrastructure….. even small Rogue Nations and private companies now have the ability to send things into space and they wouldn’t even need explosives just hitting one of them with a blunt objects shot into space would not get out of orbit and destroy it
I experienced such an event today. Internet went down and everything came to a halt. The place I work was able to use telephone and radio communications, but, productivity dropped to zero. The consequences of an emergency situation would be much worse without effective radio communication.
I always make sure that I have a fresh supply of batteries to power flashlights and my CC Radio.
If the Internet goes down, alternate sources of local and distant news will be critical. I have a CC Radio 2E with local ham radio frequencies programmed in. Also have a Technician ham license so can listen and broadcast on local Skywarn ham 2 meter bands using an inexpensive Baofeng 5rv2+. In an emergency, licensing is not necessary by the way I do believe. It’s important to know the emergency frequencies and program and test in advance of an emergency. And, I’d love to have the CC Skywave for shortwave would be an upgrade to my current shortwave.
If the net goes down ,I am going to rely on the ham radio license that I’m working on right now as well as the short wave radio and a cb I plan to put in my truck.i already have the CB and a hand held ham radio,next is to get a moble ham for my truck and possibly a base station.
Your company has been great with the radios you carry .
TV will be interrupted as well
Don’t depend on the conveniences of a “smart home” without a manual back-up plan, have a gasoline-powered generator (and supply of gasoline) at hand in case of power outages, go back to good old CB radio or walkie-talkies for communication.
I have considered how to handle any emergency that might occur. I’m a licensed ham radio operator, and have battery backup for several transceivers. I also have a go bag, with all the tech gear I might require, including radios, as well as batteries, both NiMH and alkaline. I too worry that a virus could disrupt my life, including utilities. I also carry cash, in the event that money machines would be out of commission. Things as simple as always having a full tank of gas in my vehicle could be a lifesaver. Thank you Bob Crane for bring this to our attention.
No I don’t I figure if it goes it won’t matter what I do things will cease to function that are out of my power and control to fix
I live in Silicon Valley, and I have paper maps that cover the entire San Francisco Bay area. In fact, I don’t even have GPS in my car. So, if the GPS goes down, I will just pull out my papers maps, and I will be fine.
Glad you are having the contest give away. BUT; where on your website can I register. I’d like to be one of the winners. With all appreciation Thank You.
Our family would listen to the radio and read paper copies of books.
If you do not have a good radio, get to know someone who does. We would need to know what was happening.
Very interesting reading! Everyone should own at least one battery operated radio, especially one with shortwave and/or SSB capabilities.
For fun, travel, or if TEOTWAWKI event or other SHTF situation occurs, I use an ICOM IC-7000 HF/UHF/VHF in my truck and when camping with a solar power box I built for our emergency/remote power needs (it uses a 120-watt photo-voltaic panel and marine batteries). A CC Skywave SSB would be a great addition to our “Plan B” equipment.
Well with 7,500365 Billion of us Human Lemmings at 3:47 PST 9/20/2018…on this finite globe, with negligible family planning, overfishing, Disasters from pollution and Global Warming, deforestation, disappearing drinkable water, etc.
1. Get a survivalist supply of water and non-perishable foods, medicines, first aid supplies, camping gear, including radio (hand cranked), SW transmitter (if you can afford it) and a bicycle or hand cranked generator (if you can find or rig one).
2. Although it will only delay the environmental and social problems, vote and do everything that you can to oppose the Koch Brothers/Pence coalition (Pence is the one who has actually had the Koch’s agenda installed from the White House [mining, fracking, etc. on Federal Lands, no penalties for Coal burning, working to get oil drilling anywhere that they want it, etc.] You can confirm that from an expose’ in “The New Yorker”
magazine.
3. Get some good Books, including a survival guide.
I live in Brazil. I’m in love with the radio. My dream is to have a CCrane. I spent a lot of years in the countryside, where I had no TV. I’ve always listened to the news from Brazil on the radio. The whole history of Brazil and other countries was transmitted to me by radio waves. Congratulations to CCrane. Access the site daily in order to see the news. Too bad I can not afford a CCrane SSB due to the cost of importing and the dollar value in my country.
Como faço para comprar um rádio SSB em meu país (Brasil)?
Check our Amazon store first http://www.amazon.com/shops/ccrane
– if it isn’t available for shipping to Brazil, you can order direct from our site http://www.ccrane.com. Sometimes Amazon has much better shipping rates and time frames.
While I agree with the thrust of the article regarding the loss of the Internet. IMO the utility of SSB reception is over-rated for the average listener. If the objective is to listen to amateur radio stations, then all is as stated. If the objective is to listen for possible communications at the highest level, that will not happen as those communications will likely be in the form of spread spectrum channel hopping technology or transmissions that are digital and or encrypted. Information will likely be sourced from local radio stations, possibly local TV outlets and definitely from worldwide shortwave flame-throwers, all of which are AM.
As an Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) radio operator, I would try to use Winlink on HF for e-mail to those close by that use a common relay point. For others, I would use FLDIGI in the NH Digital Network for longer formal messages in New England or SSB in the NH Section Net.
Of course my CCrane AM/FM/SW receiver would be helpful in keeping track of local and international news.
Sadly broadcast stations use the internet for their feeds, it’s not just over microwave STL anymore. Fortunately ISDN is still out there as a backup that used.
Also if you have telephone bundled with internet, that may not have that option either.
So much is audio over IP now.
Great article. During recent power outages, the only way to find out what’s going on is with a good battery operated radio. SSB provides a whole new layer of information during an emergency.
I have family service Walkie-talkies always charged and at the ready.
I lived most of my life without the internet, so I suppose I could go back to the way it was. Landline phones will still work for the most part. Television will also be available… after all it is radio with pictures, right!?
We moved last December and I’m starting over again. Seems my help packed things where I can find them, tho I finally found my CCWifi and EP90. I was able to keep track of my GMRS radios which are useful for comms, got a load of fuel for the fireplace in the event of power outage (yup, the internet is connected everywhere). A few other things need to be done and a couple of emergency radios and I’ll get by.
Where there’s a will there’s a way but having a good shortwave (and AM) radio on hand is always a “must”…
I do depend a lot on the internet for most everything… Although, having no television, I do reply on radio for news and information. I have not developed a plan for the internet going down, but do enjoy my radios, very much.
Never take a chance. Always have a good battery powered radio available at all times…
I have extra batteries and a secret weapon: an old fashion telephone land line.
Something I wonder about: If the internet “goes down” would we also lose cellphone service? If so, I can picture millions of zombie-like creatures trying to plug their smartphone’s USB cable into the nearest thing that looks like the phone jack that they remember seeing in a picture somewhere back when they had internet access.
Three absolutely crucial steps if this happens:
1) Have onhand a multi-band SSB capable radio. The CC Skywave SSB radio would be perfect for this. You would have no way to hear what’s going on “out there” without this sort of radio.
2) Equip yourself with some way to transmit to others. An amateur radio transceiver, FRS radio or GMRS radio will enable you to get your voice out there for that ever important 2-way communication. Of course these radios won’t do you much good if you don’t know how to use them. Think about getting started with a simple FRS radio for local communication, then get to work on obtaining a ham radio license which will enable you to communicate with the whole rest of the world.
3) It will be VERY important to avoid the millions of zombie-like creatures mentioned above. You never know where they’ll try to stick that USB thing!
It’s important that we save WWV, WWVH & WWVB. These time signal stations in the Colorado and Hawaii are important back-ups to the internet & GPS system. They also keep our “Atomic Clocks” running on time. They are in danger of losing their funding in the 2019 budget. Please let your representatives know that we need these stations on the air.
CCrane is a great resource for receivers, antennas and information. I have the Skywave SSB and a CC Radio 2E and they are quality products.
If the entire internet infrastructure goes down, it would mean serious national and worldwide problems, and local thugs will take advantage. Don’t forget to have a supply of ammo for your home defense weapons. Things could get seriously nasty.
My AM pocket radio will come in handy! The problem is that so many of the AM stations are no longer staffed “after hours” and on weekends. They are just playing music from the stations computer hard drive. That’s the bad news for those of us who rely (or use to rely) on AM radio for timely information.
I tend to agree it would not be the end of the world however the newer generations may think it a most serious occurrence. Communication has made strides since the internet came into being but is not the only form existing, we would all start relying on the media maybe and one good way of knowing this is radio both broadcast (AM/FM) and shortwave including SSB. It will again be vital to have a radio that is reliable and receives all of the above broadcasts. Thanks CC Crane for your due diligence to present products that represent this,
Many people get their television and radio over the internet these days, and I haven’t had cable TV for years. People ask me how I get the local news on my TV? Most don’t know that there are very good HDTV receivers in each television sold and a simple antenna made of wire or rabbit ears can usually pick up the local stations. I use a twin bowtie antenna sitting behind the set that picks up everything in my area.
It astounds me that I have people in their 50s and 60s asking me this. Don’t they remember rabbit ear antennas on the back of their TV sets?
Of course, battery powered radios are a must to have around the house too. Hey, I have a Google Home in each room, but I still have plenty of radios. To run them when the power goes out, I’d recommend having several Sanyo eneloop batteries charged up and ready to go. The eneloop batteries loose their charge very slowly and are what I used to power my portable radios.
I have a CB in my truck, a scanner with a transceiver in the event I would need to contact local police and fire departments via dispatcher, a battery powered shortwave radio and I keep a corded landline in storage in case my neighbors with landline service are not able to use their cordless landline, and all important telephone numbers are written down in an address/telephone number book as a backup.
I have a solar powered generator that is EMP resistant. Eventually the system will come back on line. But until it does I will be able to run A CC Skywave SSB
It’s not the end of the world. It’s just like going back in time. Think of the 1980’s and remember which technologies we’re available. Assuming that wireless cell phone service is also down, your best bets are a landline telephone and ham radio. Think of communication during a natural disaster, ham radio, cb and other wireless radio communication is how I would personally do it as long as a power source such as a battery or regular power source is available. Regarding GPS being down, you have maps. The internet being down is scary, but an old soul like me can easily go through it. A great monitoring device such as a shortwave radio is a great tool to stay informed. I thank Ccrane for the quality products they sell.
KD2NOA
I began reading http://www.ready.gov a few months ago. It provides many good tips, one of which is being prepared is different for every part of the country: The Gulf Coast threat is hurricanes, Central Midwest is tornadoes, along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers it’s floods, anywhere in the Far West it’s wild fires, etc.
Having a connection separate form the Interest, like radio, is helpful, but even radio is not completely safe. Some radio stations get their content and information from the Internet.
A battery-powered radio is essential for personal emergency planning, and the CC Skywave SSB Radio is great for this purpose. As a regional coordinator for the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in Western Washington State and as a longtime Amateur Radio Operator, I’m well aware of what would happen to emergency communication if the Internet goes down. And it’s not just the Internet. In a disaster of any kind, cables get cut and cell towers get overloaded or run out of power. So you can’t depend on Wireless Emergency Alerts, landline telephone warnings, or — when the power goes out — TV news. In most cases, you’ll only receive useful emergency information from broadcast radio, most often AM radio. And even if local broadcasters are off the air, Ham Operators will be relaying vital information for emergency managers. Much of this information will be transmitted on the high-frequency (HF) ham bands, Those voice transmissions will be on single-sideband, which you can’t understand on a standard short-wave receiver. An SSB receiver may be the only way to get useful emergency information. It’s good to cover your bets with a receiver that can do AM, FM, and HF SSB..
If the internet goes down, maybe it would be a good time to take a moment and actually talk to the people that you care about. If an EMP does not take out our radios, it would be nice to hear some news and listen to some music.
I must have at least 30 radios in my house. Of those, about half at least have shortwave. Of those, I remember about 8 of those have single side band ability. The newest is the CC Skywave SSB. It’s pretty much my favorite radio which says a lot. I never got a ham licence, but I do have a cheap UHF/VHF radio that can also transmit as an emergency radio. I would be whining if the internet went down, but we keep some cash, and normally have both cars mostly full along with several 5 gal cans of gas on hand. I also keep a ton of spare alkaline arteries and rechargeable batteries. I also have about 2600 books downloaded on my paper-white kindle. I have enough spate power to run it for a good year. It doesn’t need internet to read those books. I don’t think no matter what you do, you will realize there was something you did not prepare for. We DO have paper copies of almost all our important papers. That’s a big one.
A good plan will also include ways to power your radio when your supply of alkalines is exhausted. Inverters for your power source in your car is a start. I’m looking for small scale solutions in the solar power realm for powering / charging my necessities.
As an avid NEWS TALK RADIO listener, would like to see ATSC TV Band added to portable radios to bring them up to date, as older radios with TV Band will not function as the broadcast transmission standard has changed. This would be an added dimension to radios which is now defunct. That being said, I do not know if this* [*i.e. ATSC Digital TV Band] would be affected in the event of an Internet outage, however, it surely would be a tremendous benefit to many people who are vision impaired who surely miss having a TV Band on their multi band portable radios. From a RADIO listener in Texas. RA.
I hate to say it but even the C Crane radios may fail after an aerial nuclear detonation, think neutron bomb or any huge EMP event. How many of the IC’s in your products have been designed to be EMP hardened? That said, I am a firm believer in old fashioned technology, like AM radio. But even most broadcasters today are using solid state transmitters that are far more prone to EMP damage than the old vacuum tube monsters we once used at our AM towers. FEMA does provide funds for hardened radio facilties so that the PEP stations do have Faraday cages and other EMP protection applied to their AM transmitters. Many years ago I received a government contract to install some EMP protection at a local AM station that was an EBS primary.
As for GPS, maintenance of the constellation does not depend upon the Internet. DoD has its own fiber network and can relay data and control from satellite to satellite from multiple uplink sites. The system is pretty well hardened.
That said, I am one of those Community Emergency Response Team members (CERT), trained to work with incident commanders and provide backup communications via amateur radio. I’m also the amateur radio repeater trustee for a DMR (digital mobile radio) repeater for my community. It can link talk group conversations locally, regionally and globally. But of course that depends upon the Internet staying up.
I always felt it was unwise to shut down and dismantle most of our shortwave radio stations worldwide. It was penny wise and pound foolish to think we’ll always be able to reach out to folks in other countries via streaming (Internet Radio). Shortwave is the only way to reach folks whom otherwise might have their Internet access filtered if not terminated at the drop of a hat. At least one manufacturer is offering an AM/FM radio for folks in Third World countries that runs off of kerosene! It’s a lantern with a thermo-electric pile to power a radio in its base!
Very informative. Thanks for your input.
Given the way the Internet is built (a collection of backbone networks from various companies), the entire Internet is not likely to be shut down. The Internet as a whole is designed to function even if parts of it are destroyed. More likely to happen is a local temporary outage, such as when a particular ISP is having issues. If this happens too often with your ISP, switch! Or if your use of the Internet is mission-critical, sign up with a second ISP for redundancy, one that is connected to a different backbone. A good router could even set it up so both can be used for a faster combined connection.
Maybe an EMP or major solar flare can knock out the Internet on a country-wide or continent-wide scale. In that case, definitely have an unplugged radio stored in a Faraday cage.
If the internet would fail, I would recommend that you have enough cash on hand to take care of your immediate needs. No internet, no working credit cards.
If the internet were to fail, I would rely on my 55 years experience as a licensed ham radio operator and use traditional analog communications protocols.
We did lose the internet, power, and cell phone coverage during category 5 Hurricane Andrew for 10 weeks – we actually went through the eye of the hurricane. I am an amateur radio operator and have many solar PV panels that I used to charge batteries so I can use the ham radio equipment. Handheld walkie-talkies were very useful to keep in touch locally. I have several battery powered radios that work great to get news, including a Crane AM/FM radio that works great. Listening to the rest of the world during a crisis like this is very comforting. Thank you C. Crane.
I do expect a major internet interruption at some point in time and all I know I am glad my radio will work. I purchased a CCRadio2E
in 2013. I live in Canada and had a hard time finding a local supplier but I did eventually. It may be easier now? I have had a number of compliments on the radio and still love it to this day!!
Hi Steve, we do sell some of our products on Amazon Canada. You can view them by going to the following page on Amazon.ca https://www.amazon.ca/s?me=A1XN92BZURJDNO&marketplaceID=A2EUQ1WTGCTBG2