New warning from Wes Streeting re cyber attacks.

[MozzieFreeZone]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-shortages-cyber-attack-prepare-defence-b3071656.html

I focus on these things and hope outages etc. don't last more than a few days. Nothing special, no extreme purchases, nothing that requires cooking, but a box in the spare room with -

Heavy duty charger, the one I have will do an iPad and a phone to full.
Battery/solar radio and torch.
Tinned foods like tuna, salmon, corned beef. Ryvita and crackers galore
Soya and almond milk which lasts for ages unrefrigerated. I have UHT aswell but I hate that stuff, but any port in a storm.
Four toilet rolls
A spare month's medication which I got privately. That's so reassuring as I would be half dead without it!
£100 cash.

That's my emergency box, and I know where it is, and then forget about it.

Things to remember though -
Charge up power banks once a month with reminder
Check use by dates on meds

But there's only me here so it's easy enough to be prepared and I'm not fussy about food as long as it's edible.

I think it is sensible to have some extra non perishable supplies in - if you can afford to do so and have the space . Obviously not all will be able to . I think also that the issue are cyber attacks , AI and also the adverse weather predicted for this winter due to El Niño . I don’t think being a bit prepared is panicking but just being sensible , especially if you have kids / other dependents .

Any immediate help would need to be directed to the most vulnerable in our society .

If there are power outages it would impact the supermarkets too . I would assume that the big supermarkets must be working on strategies too .
I think you have to think if there was a severe storm and electricity , gas , water was cut off for a few days - what would you do ?

Do you really want to be queuing for hours at the supermarket as people start to panic buy ?

The advice I have read is to use fresh food within hours , then frozen, then tins etc .

Morrisons did boxes of essentials during COVID. Was quite exciting seeing what you got in it.

The government say we should have cash that includes notes and coins. Presumably so you can give exact amount, or not much over so be willing to lose a few pence. So a bunch of ten pound notes won't do.

Well the tenners (or twenties) would in a way, since I'd spend every penny of the notes until I needed no change back!

But it might be fixed prices for a box of essentials. Say £32 no change given.

Buy something(s) to the value of £8 quid on top.

Tuesday's Google Cloud outage was a small preview: Lloyds, HSBC and Revolut apps down for most of the day, with no attack involved. The cheapest protection is boring: some cash at home in small notes, a card from a second bank, and key phone numbers written down rather than only in your phone.

There are these things called tin cans, jars, packets and boxes. Food comes in them.

Great tip re monthly charging reminder! I can do rechargeable batteries too...

Help me - why write down numbers from your phone?

I know nothing about this outage. In fact I am sure I still logged into Lloyds app on Tuesday.

This. What a bunch of jokers they are. Nobody can run the country effectively and I'm not buying into their fear propaganda ever again. What a bloody joke we've become. I feel sad for my grandparents and all that they stood for.

Again this attitude is weird. You don't trust the government to run the country effectively, yet you are fully confident they will run the country effectively so nothing is affected by cyber attacks and storms?

I don't understand the people who seem to be annoyed at the mere suggestion of being a little more resilient.
How ridiculous! Just the sort of people who will be bleating about where the help is for them when they're not immediately prioritised, and those that actually need help are.
Selfish attitude tbh.

We have a lot of bottled water, food that doesn't need cooking, gas stove and wind up radios.

My weird response to him saying this was to go through and print a lot of actual photo's out. I had a weird worry that if internet went down/all of my data was wiped, they would be the only thing I would long-term miss.

OMG, please tell me what road you live in 🤣

This.

You don’t make sense. Weird.

If you trust the government, then it makes sense to take this advice.

If you don't trust the government, and think they're not running the country effectively, then it still makes sense to take this advice, because if they're incompetent then they're not going to deal well with any emergency and get things back to normal fast.

There could be something that affects the electricity grid. There could be something that affects the food supply chain. There could in theory be something that affects gas (like a temporary shortage). It's unlikely to be something that affects all of those things at once, but just in case it helps to have stuff that keeps for a while but that can be eaten cold if really needed. And in addition to that water so if the water supply is down but the electricity is working you can still have pasta. And a torch for if food isn't an issue but the electricity is off.

I think it's about covering all the bases rather than preparing for one specific event.

Im sure he would be terrified LOL

Thanks for that. I was panicking a bit about everything going down at the same time. Having candles is a good idea too.

Tinned ham, corned beef, tinned fish. Its difficult I know but at least you can eat it without cooking even if it is disgusting🤮

I’m seriously thinking of buying one
of these!