Recently, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that Chinese hackers have been attacking critical infrastructure in the United States. The group at the center of the recent cyber attacks call themselves Volt Typhoon and U.S. intelligence sources believe they are part of a larger effort to compromise critical infrastructure like internet service providers and utilities. Their efforts took control of routers, modems and internet connected security cameras with the purpose of hiding downstream attacks on more sensitive targets like potentially military bases, electrical grids, and financial services.
As someone who helped stand up the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security when I was at the white House, this does not come as a surprise. Whether enemies of the United States, criminal organizations, or even individual hackers trying to make a name for themselves, cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure are on the rise and becoming more effective every day.
Two areas of particular concern to individuals like myself are the attacks to the electrical grid and the financial system. And that's because most money that Americans have are in some electronic form, like their investments, checking them savings accounts at the bank and retirement accounts. If there's no electricity or if the financial system goes down, that gives the hackers tremendous power to create panic and increase their leverage to get huge ransomware payments like they did last year with a few utilities that were hacked. Saying that, even as cyber attacks increase and become more sophisticated, so have cyber security efforts. Yet the risk continues to increase over time.
As a former Mint Director, I believe there will always be a role for cash and precious metal bullion. And one reason why is the risk from these cyber attacks, whether kept at home, someplace accessible or even a safety deposit box? I have cash in gold and silver for many reasons, including the potential of cyber attacks. It is also a good reason to diversify your retirement investments with gold through a precious metal IRA, which can hold real gold or silver that you actually own and won't disappear from a cyber attack. Mine is from U.S. Money Reserve.
