EMP Would Hit Banks 'At Speed of Light'

F. Michael Maloof / WND

WASHINGTON – It’s happening with increasing regularity – a giant sunspot that is at least six times the diameter of the Earth formed in less than a few hours and is spewing solar flares that can be up to six or seven times the size of the Earth.

These flares are becoming more frequent due to the sun approaching what scientists call a solar storm maximum in its 11-year cycle, and the sunspot of immediate concern now is more in alignment with Earth.

This has raised new alarms over what effect a direct impact one of these flares, which produce a massive electromagnetic pulse, would have on America’s electric grid system and technology-based society, much of which remains unprotected from any direct EMP event.

This is not some esoteric scientific theory. Try this: It could make your bank accounts no more than a file on a hard drive in a bank office, unreachable by you or your creditors, experts warn.

Read the documentation that’s sparking the worry about the EMP threat, in “A Nation Forsaken”.

Just exactly what would happen should Earth be hit with such a massive solar flare, if the information technology and networks on which the nation’s financial system depends are crushed?

It is clear that under an electromagnetic pulse attack, there would be widespread damage to the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructures including control systems and equipment of the nation’s grid system.

This damage and destruction also extends to information technology and its networks and the financial services industry which depends on those systems.

Banking actually is a network of organizations and systems that process our money transactions from deposits, funds transfers, savings and loans to other financial services.

Virtually all economic activity in the United States and other developed countries depends on a functioning financial services industry. In effect, the financial services industry is not only the medium but the record keeper for financial transactions and is the place where people, companies and indeed countries keep their money and other financial instruments.

In effect, it is the core of information technology and networks, without which financial services cannot operate. Its automation has spurred the growth of wealth increasing greatly the amount of business transacted on a daily basis.

In the early 1970s, the New York Stock Exchange would close on Wednesdays to clear backlogs from an average day of trading, amounting to some 11 million shares.

Today, it’s a different story. The Securities Industry Automation Corporation, or SIAC, has no interruptions in routine operations and handles some three billion shares daily.

Read more at WND: http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/emp-would-hit-banks-at-speed-of-light/#hRf2bK282AuJp8Ic.99