The lights go out
Imagine a town where the power fails at 6 pm. Traffic lights stop. Shops cannot take cards. The water pumps stop. Hospitals use back up power.
Some services hold up whole countries. A cyber attack on one of them hurts millions of people.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Critical national infrastructure | the services a country cannot do without | power, water, finance |
| Supply chain | the path that goods and materials take from maker to user | |
| Utility | a service everybody needs, such as power or water | |
| Surge | a sudden rise in electric power | |
| Under-voltage | power that is too weak to run equipment properly | |
| Sanitation | the systems that clean waste water and keep people healthy | |
| Impact | the effect that an event has |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can describe how a cyber attack could harm food supply, energy, water, government and finance.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Five areas and what could go wrong
| Area | Impacts of a cyber attack |
|---|---|
| Supply chain | Food and raw materials do not arrive, so shelves and factories run short |
| Energy | Power cuts, surges, under-voltage events, and restricted or lost gas supply |
| Water and sanitation | No fresh water at home, flooding, and trouble at treatment works |
| Government | National communication channels stop and policies cannot be put in place |
| Finance | Scheduled payments fail, electronic transfers stop and physical payments cannot be processed |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Everything is linked
A fault in one area spreads. A power cut stops water pumps. No water closes food factories. No food reaches shops.
That is why these services are called critical. Cyber security protects the computers that run them.
Check
Have a go
Check
4 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.