Dark ages. Most preppers think and plan for the collapse of the power grid, but must don’t think about the collapse of the internet and every device connected to it. That’s exactly what the threat is in The President is Missing. This review isn’t as much a look at the quality of writing, or the politics of Bill Clinton, one of the authors. This review of The President is Missing instead looks at the threat, of its possible, and lessons preppers should take away from this book.
This book follows President Duncan, as he deals with a terrorist organization partnered with an Arab political group and the Russians. This group develops a computer virus that will completely wipe the internet and every device connected to it. This would effectively ruin every computer, phone, and tablet, but it would also affect every smart device, or devices with any internet connectivity, which means a lot of people’s home appliances, modern cars, and a host of other devices we don’t immediately think of.
In the story, a couple of the computer scientists defect and help the President solve the problem and stop the virus before it leads to the dark ages, all while being chased by a team of as assassins. The book is full of clichés, but is entertaining, and has some insights into how the government might react to such a situation, as well as the ramifications of such an attack.
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Key Takeaways for Preppers from The President is Missing
Suspension of Rights and Implementing Martial Law
President Duncan had executive orders drawn up and ready to go for martial law, suspending habeas corpus, and supply rationing. From a policy perspective, the loss of the internet and possibly the grid and clean water supply is a severe emergency, and the country has to respond to survive. This is an absolute nightmare for a prepper though. Prepping practices could be made illegal overnight, along with the suspension of a lot of people’s rights. The scariest part is that this is written by former President Bill Clinton, and he writes about these things and the country’s preparations for these actions with a frightening nonchalance. He is ready to suspend the rights, and it doesn’t give him much hesitation.
The Loss of the Internet
I write this review shortly after the shutdown of the colonial pipeline due to a ransomware cyber attack. Cyber attacks need to be taken seriously. Could it take down the whole internet? The book points out all the fail safes and backups the internet has, so its possible, but there are efforts put into place to prevent a total loss. Furthermore, this virus also destroys every device with any connection to the internet. There are also reports of some smart devices being hacked, so it is a vulnerability. I consider smart devices to be another moving part and another possible point of failure. They’re convenient, but I don’t like to rely on them exclusively.
What’s the difference between a collapse of the internet and a collapse of the power grid?
The main difference is that your lights still might turn on without the internet. They might turn off temporarily though. The grid is monitored and I’m sure controlled via computers, so the system would probably have some hiccups if all internet connected devices suddenly went off line.
A Threat to the Water Supply
The cyber terrorists affected water supply in LA in the book as well. Essentially, they hacked the water treatment plants and changed the filtration levels and disabled the alarms, essentially dumping a ton of water into the system. They said it was about 500 times worse than Flint Michigan.
Is this plausible? Yes, and no. I worked for a city, so I agree that the internet going down could greatly cause problems with the machinery. There were secondary checks in the system though. There were lab technicians who checked chemical levels regularly throughout the day, every day to make sure things were in acceptable levels. So, while it’s possible that the municipal water works could be compromised, there are fail safes in place. There could be bad water introduced, but not at the level of 500 times flint Michigan, unless the water works staff were also incapacitated, which is also possible, though it combines cyber terrorism and physical terrorism.
Further more, cities and towns go through mock disasters where they run this exact scenario. The town i worked for did just this. They had the benefit of doing it with the internet and the connected resources that come with it though, but it should come as a comfort that cities and towns go through drills and simulations to prepare for these types of disasters. Even still, its smart to have a backup water filtration system.
What’s unbelievable?
The perfect sniper
In the book there is an assassin sent from the bad guys to take out the defecting computer terrorists, and possibly the president. The sniper assassin claims to have never missed a shot or had a target get away. They also operate through all of the book with headphones or ear buds on, playing classical music. An assassin is essentially a hunter. Filing your ears with music eliminates one of your senses, which means it’s harder to hunt.
Furthermore, even the best shot makes mistakes and can miss shots, especially on moving targets. People move, wind blows, and there is even variation in bullets themselves, as anyone who reloads can tell you. She’s a flawed character, too perfect in some areas, and too stupid in others.
A password in a terrorist virus
In the book, one of the terrorist computer virus makers installs a password that can shut down the entire virus world wide without anyone else knowing. There are several issues with this. The first being that this presents a weak point in a terrorist system. If something like this were to happen, don’t count on a password. Also, there were other computer engineers working on the virus with the Sons of Jihad. Did none of them notice it?
The President is the Action Hero
There are plenty of presidents that have been war heroes, and the fictional President Duncan falls into this category, as an Army Ranger. If such a person were to be elected president, they probably would have the skills to do a lot of the tactical things President Duncan does in the book, like performing well in a fire fight, but that just wouldn’t happen. The book shows the president bringing the best minds together to help solve the virus, but not to do any of the physical stuff. The commander in chief has the whole military at his disposal, to say nothing of the FBI, CIA, secret service, and oodles of other resources at his disposal. There’s no way he is going out to try to stop a cyber terrorist single handed. I think that kind of presidency ended with Teddy Roosevelt.
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In conclusion, this book provides an interesting view about a potential disaster and a theoretical look at how such an event might look. It was a good book, but doesn’t make our list of prepping favorites.
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