Wilson College Guest Speaker to Discuss Threat of Attack on North American Power Grid

Chambersburg, Pa. — Doomsday scenarios are the stuff of movies and television shows, but how likely are they really? Guest lecturer Cynthia Ayers will discuss a real-life potential doomsday scenario — an attack on electrical grid — in “National Security and the Electrical Grid” at Wilson College on Wednesday, Oct. 26. The lecture, which will be held at 6 p.m. in the Brooks Science Center, is free and open to the public.
 
Ayers is a national security threat analyst currently working as an independent consultant within the Strategic Concepts and Doctrine Division of the Center for Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle. Also deputy to the executive director of the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) Task Force on National and Homeland Security, Ayers will talk about a variety of threats to our nation’s electric infrastructure, including an attack using a high-altitude nuclear blast that would cripple the North American Power Grid. She will also discuss ways to protect the grid.
 
In his book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, journalist Ted Koppel says it’s not a matter of IF terrorists (state-sponsored or otherwise) will attack our electrical grid, but WHEN.
 
“The U.S. Congressional EMP Commission estimated that a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill up to 9 of 10 Americans by starvation, disease and societal collapse,” Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, wrote in a recent published article. The article goes on to say that “virtually any nuclear weapon — even a primitive, low-yield atomic bomb such as terrorists might build — would suffice to make a catastrophic EMP attack. The electric grid and other civilian critical infrastructures have never been hardened to survive EMP.”
 
After retiring from the National Security Agency (NSA) with over 38 years of government service, Ayers was appointed vice president of EMPact America. Her intelligence community career included a position as an NSA Representative to the Director of Central Intelligence’s Counterterrorism Center, where she worked throughout the attacks on the USS Cole and 9/11 (2000-2002).

Her service culminated in an eight-year assignment to the Center for Strategic Leadership as the NSA’s visiting professor to the Army War College, where she taught electives on contemporary threats to national security from an intelligence perspective and advised students on research concerning strategic intelligence, counterterrorism, cyberwarfare, the Middle East and critical infrastructure protection.

She has written several published articles on national security issues (including the threat of an EMP resulting from an attack using a high-altitude nuclear blast); given presentations to a variety of federal, state and local organizations; participated as guest and co-host in radio broadcasts; and assisted with the production of workshops on topics of national security interest (e.g., Iran, terrorism and catastrophic critical infrastructure events).
 
Ayers’ lecture is being hosted by Professor Ed Wells’ “Science, Technology and Society” class and is being sponsored by Wilson’s Fulton Center for Sustainability Studies and the Margaret A. Cargill Endowment for Environmental Studies.

CONTACT:  Ed Wells, Professor of Environmental Studies
Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3413
Email: edward.wells@wilson.edu
or
Chris Mayer, Director of the Fulton Center for Sustainability Studies
Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3247
Email: christine.mayer@wilson.edu
 
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Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 34 majors and master’s degrees in education, the humanities, accountancy, management, nursing, fine arts and healthcare management for sustainability. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation.
Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college has a fall 2016 enrollment of 1,098, which includes students from 18 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.