Social and Economic Collapse

Carl de Souza/Getty Images

Croydon, South London, August 8, 2011

While normally thought of as a symptom of any of the above disasters, what if, say, a group of hackers unite and bring the stock markets or power grid down? Chaos would ensue. While many industrialized nations may try to order martial law to keep the peace, this could only go on so long. Are you prepared for a world without order?
Martin: The devastation it might cause? We're not really sure yet, it depends when it happens. I remember the cyber attack that we (the U.S.) carried out on (North Iran). The mission was code named "Olympic Games" there was a nuclear facility in Iran attacked including a worm named Stuxnet. Which allegedly led to at least 1,000 centrifuges at a facility for enriching uranium to break down and be destroyed. The technology is advancing, and the money that we're putting into defense of Internet and virus attacks is migrating so fast that we can secure ourselves from these attacks quickly. On the other hand, because the advancement of the Internet and the advancement of technology is happening so fast that we can send these viruses and overcome security... It's a vicious cycle.

Read more: Apocalypse Scenarios - Likelihood of Apocalypse - Esquire
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