Cyber Attacks Imminent? What to do?

[StateOfMyHead]

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

Yeah me too, until this thread made me paranoid.

[Craigslist]

I just changed all my passwords to Batman2022, thanks for the warning OP.

[CordMcNally]

Yeah me too, until this thread made me paranoid.

The cyber attack is coming from...inside the house.

[StateOfMyHead]

The cyber attack is coming from...inside the house.

Ha! Literally lol'd, thanks man.

[MPMD]

way too idiosyncratic a risk to plan around.
a bit of cash on hand is always a good idea but that's a hedge against many things.
i think when people talk about this stuff it's always one sided, what another country could do to us, remember that we have a response which they would fear as well.
i suspect that a major cyber attack on a western democracy would be the end of putin and he knows it. he doesn't stay in power if his cronies aren't getting rich.
oh you cyber attacked part of our power grid? great now the bank accounts of every oligarch in russia are summarily seized and put into the US treasury, no takesie backsies btw, take it up w/ Vlad.

[CM]

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.

I have a significant gold position in ETFs. Keeping gold bars at the house (to save from cyber attack) carries greater risks than that of cyber attack.

[CM]

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

Yes, but houses wouldn't disappear in a puff of cyber smoke. As I wrote, I don't think there is a good answer to that threat.

[CM]

now the bank accounts of every oligarch in russia are summarily seized and put into the US treasury

This has already happened as a part of Western sanctions against Russia. So far, a couple of yachts have been seized, but it (apparently) isn't so straightforward to find/seize significant liquid assets.

[AR]

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.

That's the third account

[AR]

I have a significant gold position in ETFs. Keeping gold bars at the house (to save from cyber attack) carries greater risks than that of cyber attack.

Why?

Even if true, couldn't you keep it in a safe deposit box. Cyberattacks won't do anything to that.

[CM]

Why?

Even if true, couldn't you keep it in a safe deposit box. Cyberattacks won't do anything to that.

Theft.

Gold bars can be stored in safer locations, though I'm not familiar with the options and don't even know where I could buy the bars or verify their authenticity/content, but the transaction costs of converting to bars would be significant.

In any event, gold ETFs are only about 10% of my liquid net worth, and converting that to bars wouldn't protect the rest. Converting everything to gold isn't my idea of prudent. The quip about burying gold in the yard was just a joke.

[AR]

Theft.

If you know how to repair drywall, you can make it near impossible to find for thieves.

You can get it out yourself in under 10 min if you really need it.

[Hatton]

If you know how to repair drywall, you can make it near impossible to find for thieves.

You can get it out yourself in under 10 min if you really need it.

I had a friend (now deceased) who kept significant gold and silver in a home safe bolted to his study's floor. On top of this stash was a loaded handgun. He told me that his plan if forced to open the safe was to kill the thieves. He was serious. This is the issue with a home hoard. The Ozark solution seems pretty good however.

[Dont_know_mind]

Once or twice I thought it might be a good idea to buy a few gold coins. But there would be a 99% chance I'd forget where I stored them so I never bothered. Also, procuring them seemed like way too much effort.

[uksho]

Once or twice I thought it might be a good idea to buy a few gold coins. But there would be a 99% chance I'd forget where I stored them so I never bothered. Also, procuring them seemed like way too much effort.

Not saying that you should buy it, but it is almost like buying grocery . It hardly takes 5 minutes to buy one in local shop and you can store in bank safe deposit .