The U.S. electrical grid has a dangerous Achilles heel: the Internet. The grid’s dangerous over-reliance on Web-based communication was analyzed by the Wall Street Journal last Wednesday:

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.”The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” said a senior intelligence official. “So have the Russians.”The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn’t target a particular company or region, a former Department of Homeland Security official said. “There are intrusions, and they are growing,” the former official said, referring to electrical systems. “There were a lot last year.”Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyberattackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet.Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior intelligence official said. He added, “If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on.”Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also were at risk.

A major disruption is feasible—and there is precedent. In 2000, one disgruntled employee at an Australian water-treatment plant rigged a computerized control system, releasing over 200,000 gallons of sewage into parks, rivers and the grounds of a hotel.

Though it fields the world’s preeminent military, America is not impenetrable. An organized cyberattack on the American power grid—comprised of three separate electric networks, covering the East, the West and Texas—could easily damage sewage systems, shut down transportation lines, upset communications systems, disrupt the economy, ruin investor confidence and cause massive social chaos.

God gave the Prophet Ezekiel some peculiar instructions that provide a graphic illustration of the future downfall of America and the modern nations of Israel (for proof of America’s identity as part of biblical Israel, read The United States and Britain in Prophecy). He told Ezekiel to shave his hair and divide it into three parts. The second part was to be chopped with a knife; the third part was to be scattered to the wind. The first of these three parts, intriguingly, was to be burned with fire in the city “when the days of the siege are fulfilled.”

Gerald Flurry explains in his booklet Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet how this prophecy will be fulfilled in the time just ahead of us.

Violence and burning in the cities are about to become a common sight in America and its fellow Israelitish nations. As the U.S. economy further breaks down, unemployment will steadily increase. As that happens, expect domestic rioting and violence to become more prevalent.

Modern American history is peppered with shameful examples of lawlessness quickly erupting in the streets when ignited by specific events. The Los Angeles riots in 1992 were some of the deadliest in U.S. history, killing close to 60 people, causing an estimated $1 billion in property damage and costing 40,000 jobs. This is just one example of the destructive potential of siege coupled with burning. A similar situation played out in New Orleans in 2005, when law enforcement failed the city and lawlessness and violence took over.

A targeted, sustained cyberattack could play a major role in exacerbating similar chaos in the future. For more information on the threat cyberwarfare poses to American national security and how you can avoid this threat, read “America’s Achilles Heel—and Germany” and Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet.