Cyber Attacks Imminent? What to do?

[orthodds]

Many of the “experts” who have followed and studied Russia and their sociopath, Stalinesque leader Putin believe he will threaten nuclear but will actually pull the trigger on cyber warfare against our infrastructure including financial institutions.

Am I going to wake up one day to find the Russians have seized control of Vanguard’s system and are holding it for ransom and that I can no longer access my funds?

Anyone concerned about the possibility of a cyber attack on a scale we haven’t seen yet? Could this be what Putin is referring to when he says if we interfere we will be dealt with in a way the world has never before seen? Maybe a double entendre? (Nuclear and cyber)

I guess I’m wondering if anyone has a thought as to what type of risk we face in a cyber attack (inconvenience or worse?) and whether there is anything we little people who use financial institutions should be doing to protect ourselves. Any cyber preppers out there?!

[Max Power]

Your guess is as good as anyone's.

Many high level tech and net security folks who know more than us are anticipating issues, especially if US enters a war or strongly opposes Russia (with Poland planes, supplies, money, etc etc). That would be an obvious concern, given the present events and last couple of election cycles. There are far too many possibilities to predict with any accuracy, so they just have to hope their threat and pattern detect structure is good and then act fast to close any breaches. That is all you can do.

Holding some cash for transacting (and some gold for compact value, if you like that) is never a bad idea. The whole point of an Emergency Fund is to be quickly and reliably accessible in (drumroll) an Emergency... a lot of people who put 100% in online saving accounts or iBonds don't seem to get that part. Maybe they will be fine; maybe they'll learn the hard way?

If you run a business, you need downtime procedures for EMR and payment processing. You should be doing those things anyways.

[CordMcNally]

Of all the things I worry about, this is incredibly, incredibly low.

[FIREshrink]

I'm comfortable just having downloaded quarterly statements onto my local hard drive. I don't use that computer for anything but established financial websites and security is up to date.

[Max Power]

I'm comfortable just having downloaded quarterly statements onto my local hard drive. I don't use that computer for anything but established financial websites and security is up to date.

It would not be your hard drive, man.

They get into banks, defense, govt, commerce, infrastructure, etc servers... usually via companies who banks trust and give access, or other times they just breach secure networks or intrAnet for said services. Inside, they can wipe servers, plant viruses, screw around in various ways, learn the security and leave with no trace (for a quick entry attack in the future), open security gates for other hackers, etc. I have too many friends in the industry (white hat), and it's complex nerd stuff (they probably think the same of anat/surg?)... but the good net security companies, program managers, high level programmers, etc make much more than almost any doctors or groups or hospitals do.

I agree with above that it's nothing to lose sleep over, but me or you holding a paper saying "see, my balance was X" doesn't mean squat when the brokerage or bank has been wiped out or locked up. It doesn't matter if they believe you or want to pay you if they literally cannot. Again, not paranoid to have enough walking around EF hard money for conducting cash transactions for at least a week or two (logical advice far before Ukraine).

[Shant]

All we can really do at our end is low level stuff and redundancies. Keep the vehicles gassed up/charged, keep financial records updated, back up your devices, have emergency cash/food/power/medications. I also keep a smaller account at a second institution in case they don't get hit simultaneously by any outages.

[CordMcNally]

I also keep a smaller account at a second institution in case they don't get hit simultaneously by any outages.

If something like what the OP mentioned happens, you’d be much better off having that second smaller account in the form of water, food, guns/ammo, maybe a few precious metals, and general life skills.

[Shant]

Not mutually exclusive.

[orthodds]

There are a number of people with legit credentials who believe such an attack is likely. We have never faced such an attack so it’s hard to predict what exactly it would look like or how it would play out. Power outages, more supply chain issues, and a lack of access to money (maybe just for a short time) seem like decent possibilities.

[FIREshrink]

It would not be your hard drive, man.

They get into banks, defense, govt, commerce, infrastructure, etc servers... usually via companies who banks trust and give access, or other times they just breach secure networks or intrAnet for said services. Inside, they can wipe servers, plant viruses, screw around in various ways, learn the security and leave with no trace (for a quick entry attack in the future), open security gates for other hackers, etc. I have too many friends in the industry (white hat), and it's complex nerd stuff (they probably think the same of anat/surg?)... but the good net security companies, program managers, high level programmers, etc make much more than almost any doctors or groups or hospitals do.

I agree with above that it's nothing to lose sleep over, but me or you holding a paper saying "see, my balance was X" doesn't mean squat when the brokerage or bank has been wiped out or locked up. It doesn't matter if they believe you or want to pay you if they literally cannot. Again, not paranoid to have enough walking around EF hard money for conducting cash transactions for at least a week or two (logical advice far before Ukraine).

What I'm saying is I think there's nothing I can do about these scenarios. My best defense is to have recent statements so my fiduciaries, my insurance policies, and my government can make me whole later.

I'm also not buying up six months of shelf stable food in case of a nuclear confrontation.

[CM]

This is an important risk, in my view. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for it. I hold assets across multiple institutions, including treasurydirect, to spread the risk, and I think it is a good idea to print statements periodically, but I'm not sure what else can be done to safeguard liquid assets.

Burying gold bars in the backyard is suboptimal.

One could invest in real estate, but I don't have the time or energy for that.

[Shant]

We have never faced such an attack so it’s hard to predict what exactly it would look like or how it would play out. Power outages, more supply chain issues, and a lack of access to money (maybe just for a short time) seem like decent possibilities.

I look at the ice storm (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janu...ican_ice_storm) and 9/11 for some idea of the initial problems. It's harder to guess the longer term effects.

[Kamban]

I'm comfortable just having downloaded quarterly statements onto my local hard drive. I don't use that computer for anything but established financial websites and security is up to date.

I have always insisted that all banks and brokerages send me monthly / quarterly or yearly statements as per the activity. I also download the activity in quicken but I always have paper backup and online back up. One for cyber attacks and other in case of fire / flood etc.

[Max Power]

...Burying gold bars in the backyard is suboptimal...

Why is that? Have you ever thought it though for a small but not insignificant % of your NW?

The Fed prints/creates/"pays" well over $100M every single day. It is definitely not the worst thing to hold some gold. Gold never goes up, but everything else goes down in relative value, so it's the same effect. You would be surprised at how valuable gold has become in USD compared to its size. Au is also recognized as value or barter or exchange basically anywhere on the globe.

Since a full 27 pound gold bar is $700k (I'm sure it's now more with spike since Ukraine), the obvious thing for most normal people to do is to go with gold coins or small gold bars (or silver, but that is a fairly different animal). A gold coin smaller than an American nickel (1/4oz, brit sovereign, 20 franc, USA pre-33 gold $5, etc) is worth about $500. You can easily fit enough gold coins to buy a new car in a pocket or small pouch. That would be absolutely life-changing for post ww2 Germans, 2008 Grecians, 2018 Argentina, current Ukrainians or Russians, etc to have held.

Not to get too far off topic, but there might be more to these events than just Putin taking Donbos, sanctions, a bank getting hacked, America declaring war, etc. There are other ways for your money to get badly damaged besides hacks or inflation. It is not impossible that USD and the Petrodollar are not the panacea and bulletproof fortress we perceive them to be. A wholesale changing of the IMF guard is not impossible... we have been trading fake money for real oil for many, many years. For all we know, Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, etc have had a few meetings of their own.

[SLC OB]

This is an important risk, in my view. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for it. I hold assets across multiple institutions, including treasurydirect, to spread the risk, and I think it is a good idea to print statements periodically, but I'm not sure what else can be done to safeguard liquid assets.

Burying gold bars in the backyard is suboptimal.

One could invest in real estate, but I don't have the time or energy for that.

But wouldn't the value of homes go way down if no one had any money to access to buy them? or pay rent?