There’s a dark and mysterious force out there that’s intent on attacking the country’s power lines, and this map shows exactly where the culprits strike. The culprits are, of course... squirrels.
The site that provides these maps, called Cyber Squirrel 1, is exquisitely tongue-in-cheek, as you might imagine. From its ‘About’ section:
This map lists all unclassified Cyber Squirrel Operations that have been released to the public that we have been able to confirm. There are many more executed ops than displayed on this map however, those ops remain classified.
The data is gathered from Twitter and then listed on a filter-able Google map. You can choose to see attacks made by squirrels as well as other animals, including birds, raccoons, snakes and the occasional beaver. It also lists attacks made by Russia, China and the USA, but squirrels are the clear winners in this particular type of hi-tech warfare.
Cyber attacks capable of bringing down power networks are, so far at least, incredibly rare. For now, then, those pesky cyber squirrels reman a major threat to our energy security.