Dangerous “animal hacker”

　　In 2013, the power grids of four US states were cut off, and thousands of people were affected. Some of them were trapped in elevators, some were trapped in chaotic traffic intersections (no traffic lights), they could not Going home to rest, I can’t eat a hot meal. It happened to be on the Memorial Day of the United States during that time. People didn’t know what was going on and they gradually fell into a panic atmosphere. At this point a rumor spread quickly: this is a large-scale, perfect hacker attack. So people began to guess, who is the hacker behind? What are their purposes?
　　In fact, everyone’s imagination is too rich, and the whole story is not so complicated. For this disconnection of the power grid incident, the “hacker” of the accident did not use the computer, nor did it use a little bit of explosives. The weapon is very simple, it is 4 small claws. These “hackers” are home-grown “locals” – petite and cute big-tailed squirrels.
　　Every country has a very important infrastructure: the grid, the communication network and the transportation system, which serve people and become an indispensable part of modern human society. Imagine that the communication network was hacked and quickly collapsed. Your phone has no signal for more than 30 hours, so you must be restless. For years, the security department has been studying what hackers might use to get the country’s infrastructure in trouble, but in many cases, the expected hackers are completely different from the actual “hackers.”
　　Because the actual “hacker” is not human, but some curious animals. They don’t even know how many times they have committed crimes, how terrible these crimes are, but they are really real hackers, and they are all over the sea, land and air.
　　In contrast, in the United States, for example, human hackers attacked Internet industrial facilities only successfully three or four times. Cyber ​​attacks are very difficult. First of all, you have to develop a powerful computer virus. This is a huge project. It may take several months or several years to plan. Perhaps only well-equipped and well-funded hackers. Organizations can do it. But some animal “hacking organizations” in nature have never considered so many things. They don’t need money or viruses, but their ability to “black into” human facilities is extremely powerful. Then, let’s take a look at who is among them and how to exert destructive power.
　　No. 1 Hacker: squirrel
　　preferred target: the substation
　　area: North America, Europe
　　weapons: front teeth, systemic
　　destructive power: power failure, the collapse of the power grid
　　human painstakingly built up important infrastructure, but was easily destroy a group of hackers, which is the world The most successful anonymous hacker group, they are little squirrels!
　　Since statistics, the squirrels have attacked important human facilities more than 4,000 times, more than 1,000 times that of human hackers. Normally, the squirrel will run into the substation, biting off the energized cable and the wires of the mast, causing a short circuit in the grid. Sometimes the attack time is short and only lasts for a few seconds. A short attack may cause your home’s lamp to suddenly flicker. However, you should not ignore the ability of these small furry animals. Their brilliant “hierarchical history of hacking” includes: the operation of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange that closed the Wall Street twice in the United States; The water crisis lasted for 37 hours; a substation in Canada triggered a major fire that cut off an hour of electricity supply in the area. Even the former deputy director of the US National Security Agency admitted that the number one hacker threatening the power grid is a squirrel. These four-legged small hackers are very troublesome.
　　In order to prevent the squirrel hacker’s attack, people have come up with many ways, such as installing a fence on the window of the substation, placing the squirrel’s natural enemies in the important position of the power grid – loose (false), or sprinkle another natural enemy – The fox’s urine scared the squirrel away. However, bio-hackers have not stopped their actions, and furry “terrorists” are still active.
　　Despite the attack, the squirrel is also at risk of catching a life – being electrocuted or turning into coke in the event of a big bang. However, the substation still has great appeal to them. The substation provides them with shelters to avoid natural enemies, and the substation cooling fan can bring in some plant seeds and some food. Plus there are always some instruments for them to ponder: the squirrels’ incisors are 2.5 cm long each year, and they need to constantly pick things up to grind their teeth. In the process of grinding teeth, the human crisis has also come.
　　But for humans, the risk of not just running around a tree squirrel ………
　　2 Hackers: Sea Moon jellyfish
　　preferred target: nuclear power plant near the coast
　　areas: subtropical
　　weapon: tentacles, systemic
　　destructive: plug the cooling pipes, off
　　nuclear power plants regarded as one of the planet’s most secure facilities. So far, human hackers have never caused much damage to them, but a creature without a high-level brain can’t stand their destructive desire to attack the nuclear power plants on the coast, and it has succeeded. They live in the ocean, they have a beautiful name – the sea moon jellyfish, also known as “the small moon in the ocean.”
　　In 2013, a nuclear power plant on the coast of Sweden was working normally, but it was not long before the staff found that the power supply was not up. After a thorough search, they discovered the jellyfish jellyfish that “black” into the nuclear power plant. At that time, a large group of sea moon jellyfish was blocked in the cold water pipeline of the nuclear power plant. It is important to know that a large amount of steam is generated after the nuclear power plant generates electricity, so the power station needs to introduce a large amount of sea water to cool the steam. If the water intake is blocked by the jellyfish and the seawater is not introduced enough, the nuclear power plant can only reduce the power output or stop the power supply. The nuclear power plant provided 10% of the electricity supply to Sweden, and the blockage of the jellyfish caused the nuclear power plant to shut down for three days.
　　Although people have set up a protective net at the water intake, it is helpless that the number of “hackers” is huge – people have used the cleaning machine to catch 600 tons of jellyfish in one day. So many jellyfish made the protective nets overwhelmed and smashed. After that, these jellyfish seized the cold water pipeline without any scruples and disrupted the nuclear power plant.
　　For coastal nuclear power plants, in order to function properly, the marine hackers such as the jellyfish must not be ignored.
　　Hackers 3: Birds
　　prime target: high-voltage
　　area: worldwide
　　Weapons: wings, feet, stool
　　destructive power: the power interruption transportation
　　we often see birds lined up in a high-voltage line, if they just quietly stand There, no horrible things will happen there. Because standing on a high-voltage line, the voltage applied to the bird is very small, and the current passing through the body is very weak, so they are fine. However, if a bird “squats”, the situation is very different.
　　Assuming that the bird’s wings or feet accidentally hit the high-voltage line and the iron at the top of the pole, it will form a loop with the ground, which is equivalent to connecting the live and ground wires, which may cause a short circuit. . Then, the electric poles emit white smoke, the sparks are splashed, a loud noise is heard, the birds are burnt, the power supply system is interrupted, and sometimes a big fire is caused. For example, in 2012, a sudden blackout near a middle school in Wuhan, the poles in front of the middle school were on fire, and a bird resembling a spotted bird lying under the pole, the feathers were blown away. This bird is the culprit that caused the power outage. It caused the high-voltage line to short-circuit and the fire, and it lost its life. The weapons of bird hackers are not only the body, but their feces are also unusual weapons. Even a little bit of bird droppings falling from the sky, hitting some places on the high-voltage line, will trigger the same disaster.
　　In order to keep the birds away from the high-voltage line, people installed their natural enemies on the high-voltage line. For example, in order to drive the pigeons, people put the fake owl on the high-voltage line. But this method is not perfect, because it may lead to other problems. For example, once a falcon used a fake owl as a target, it unfortunately “squatted” and eventually caused a power outage.
　　Hackers No. 4: yellow crazy ants
　　preferred target: electronics
　　areas: North America and South America
　　weapons: chemical hormones
　　destructive power: the power grid cause a short circuit and system malfunction
　　In the movie “The Ant”, there is a kind of sprouting yellow mad ants, which have incredible electromagnetic power and electrical conductivity, and are very popular. But in real life, their reputation is not very good.
　　Other ants usually like to collect litter and build nests on the ground or on the twigs, but the yellow mad ants prefer artificial electronic devices: computers, fuse boxes, power stations. They are small and can be drilled into many small gaps, so they can easily enter various electronic devices. Entomologists believe that they have a soft spot for electronic devices, perhaps because the electronic devices are warmer and more suitable for the survival of the yellow ants. However, it is distressing that they do not stay well in electronic equipment. They often bite the insulation of the wires and cause short circuits in the grid.
　　Even more frightening is that if a yellow mad ant is electrocuted, its body will release the alarm pheromone and tell its companion: danger ahead, it is killed! Subsequently, the alarm pheromone will attract the army of ants. In order to protect their homes, the yellow mad ants will start the attack mode, rampaging in the electronic equipment, crawling wildly, biting everywhere, often destroying the entire power system.
　　They once made several major disturbances in a chemical plant in North America, and the chemical plant pipeline valve control system suffered two failures. It is estimated that such crazy insects cause losses of up to $145 million per year.