Special Report: Electro Magnetic Threats Conference

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“During an electro-magnetic pulse attack no blood will be spilled, but the entire country will be paralyzed” * The first of its kind, in Tel Aviv, a conference focusing on electro-magnetic threats and EM-related terror.

Here are a few scary scenarios:

• A cruise missile carrying equipment that generates powerful electro-magnetic waves is launched towards the target – a large city, for example. The missile passes over the city, and as it passes all the lights suddenly go out. No noise, no explosions. The power grid simply shuts down.
• A video made by Boeing and U.S. Air Force: A simulation of a Champ cruise missile passing over a city, generating an electro-magnetic pulse that shuts down computers in the entire area. It’s a real experiment conducted at a secret U.S. base, telemetry readings still under review.
• A small vehicle, an innocent-looking van, wanders around important municipal facilities, government offices, military headquarters, banks or hospital. The EM wave generators inside the vehicle, meanwhile, effortlessly destroy nearby systems.

These three scenarios are electro-magnetic pulse attack scenarios, a relatively new and unfamiliar threat. General Dempsey, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “cyber and EMP are related.”

A special conference focusing on EMP threats took place in Tel Aviv, its central message being “the threat is here, now.” There are several naturally-occuring EM disturbances such as solar storms, harsh weather, lightbing, hurricanes and typhoons. Other EM phenomena are man-made, such as nuclear detonations, drones capable of generating EM pulses, or EMP devices carried on board other types of vehicles – even inside bags held by lone terrorists.

Michael Caruso, CEO of global EMP defense company ETS Lindgren: “Over the last few years there has been a growing awareness of Iranian and North Korean capabilities involving launching EMP weapons. It’s certainly something to worry about.”

Ehud Ganani is the vice president of EIS Council, an organization promoting EMP awareness in the U.S. and U.K. Ganani: “The fact that Iran is preparing to launch a ballistic missile, such as Shihab-3, from an innocent-looking commercial ship, is well known. They conducted an experiment, one missile detonated at an altitude of 30 km and another at 300 km. In the west officials believed they were failed launches. A review of Iranian military training manuals, however, led to the incident redefinition as a simulation of an EMP attack against the U.S.”

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

It’s possible that a new form of terror will soon emerge – EMP terror, and it’s a good idea to be prepared. Fortunately terrorist organizations are more interested in killing and spilling blood, while EMP attacks are silent and non-lethal – they “only” cause severe damage to infrastructure systems. It should be made clear that EMP attacks do not directly harm people.

What are the targets for EMP attacks?

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security infrastructure is critical to the existence of human society in any country. Electricity, gas, communications, transportation, distribution, information transfer, data centers, government offices, military facilities, water, hospitals, financial institutions, banks, online payment systems. All these systems depend on computers, electronics, communications. Damage to those systems is a strategic threat. Damaging them by EMP is easily accomplished, the equipment is relatively easy and simple to operate. There’s no smoke or explosions – while the damage is immense in scope. World powers were aware of the threat as early as the 1960s: The U.S. tested an EMP weapon carried aboard an airplane. All the lights in the cities of the Hawaian islands went out. The Soviets conducted their own experiments, causung heavy damage to infrastructure in Kazakhstan.

Elli Hecht from El-Op warned against EMP terror, saying it’s a concrete, man-made threat, and that “it’s relatively easy to create an electro-magnetic pulse that facilitates terror. Equipment is cheap and available, the attack can be easily carried without being detected, and the knowledge is out there on the internet.” Hecht went into more detail concerning protective measures against EMP attacks, saying that global awareness is on the rise, including in Israel. These protective measures are mostly changes to computer hardware, power cables, various pipes and to buildings that have to be protected against radiation. The main processes are hardening for electronics, shielding facilities or buildings with metal plates and protecting the entry points of pipes and cables in various facilities. Experts are convinced that investing in relatively cheap protective measures can mitigate the potential damage cuased by the invisible, deadly radiation.

Avi Tiv, CEO of RDT Systems: “The issue doesn’t enough attention, globally and in Israel. There are signs of growing awareness, through, and this is the first coference focusing on the matter. Our message is clear – in an EMP attack no blood is spilled, but the entire country could be completely paralyzed.”