Six days to the end of the world

I have spent time at some interesting conferences this autumn. One of them was in Brussels and was attended from the police, military and other security specialists. It is always interesting to learn from people that are users of the technology that we in the industry provide. Sometimes the problems are very, very different from the ones I encounter in my daily life, such as the discussion I overheard about the best way to dispose 10 000 kilos of drugs that came out of a big bust. It was discussed as a pure logistical problem.
You can say one thing about people in the security space; we are not the most optimistic people in the world. Put a bunch of us in a room and we will provide scenarios that will make the most optimistic person run for cover. In one of the seminars I attended we discussed what would happen if the supply of water, power and food where to be stopped. The conclusion was that it would take six days before the society would break down. I do not know if that is true but it gives a perspective on how vulnerable our modern life is for attacks.

We also discussed how long it would take to bring a company to its knees, the conclusion was that a service company would not last more then two weeks without Internet access.

Then we discussed which companies and organisations that where under the biggest threat for a political attack (terrorism with other words..). We did not really reach a conclusion because when we discussed it everybody seemed to be threatened. Here is a shortened list:
• Anyone in the financial sector
• Meat producers
• International companies with strong brands
• Power and other utilities companies
• IT-Security companies
• Media companies
• Oil companies
• Car industry
• Drug companies
• Defence industry