It rained, sort of. Drizzled anyway. The heat spell is broken!
Our monthly bills are paid through auto pay, either from a credit card or directly from our bank/credit union. Credit card bills (we use two cards and buy almost everything with them) are paid through the electronic Bill Pay feature with our bank.
I was all set to take care of the accounting Tuesday morning, when....NO INTERNET! I couldn't do anything I needed to do to balance the check book or make payments.
I recently read the book The President is Missing, by James Patterson and Bill Clinton. It is about cyber warfare, and the imminent threat that all electronic media would be shut off. Since these days everything is done electronically, through computers, you couldn't buy groceries, pump gas, run electrical grids or communication systems, or transportation systems. You would not have access to your bank accounts, and once you spent the cash on hand you would be out of money. It would be so crippling that we would be plunged into the dark ages.
I decided I would not do well in the "dark ages".
The Internet was down regionally all day Tuesday. It really cramped our style not to have access to our WiFi. Wednesday morning there was still no Internet access, so I called Comcast, again, and found that service was restored and we just needed to have our modem reset. Phew! I could pay the bills!
It's scary to realize how dependent we are on services that could disappear over night. Should I at least go back to receiving paper statements?
When you hear politicians discuss which is our nation's greatest threat, forget about nuclear weaponry or illegal immigrants or even terrorist attacks. Our biggest threat is a cyber attack. Cyber security is much more essential than a wall.
I agree with you, no wall, cyber security. We lost our cable for a day. It was annoying to say the least. My husband keeps statements. I think we all should have a paper copy of them because if all goes down how are you going to show the bank that you do have an account and have $in it etc. Scary to think.
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law takes great pride in doing things the hard way. In her old age she’s about maxed out. She refused to use a computer. Now that she’s a shut-in it’s very hard for her to do business. She has to call the bank to find out her account balance. She could order her groceries delivered to her apartment if she used a computer. The toughest one though is the public library. She couldn’t use a Kindle if she had one. Checking out and returning books is a real problem.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are vulnerable to cyber attack and it is scary to contemplate. Life as we have come to know it would be severely impacted and even those who refuse to use a computer because of concerns about her privacy (talking to you my friend Ellen, who will never see this) will be hurt.
ReplyDeleteThe lilies -- oh, my!
The risk is there when going paperless. I'm afraid that that's where the world is going.
ReplyDeleteWe're lost without our internet, that's for sure!!
ReplyDeletetoo true, yesterday our internet and tv were out most of the day...we felt lost so took a drive and went out to lunch. later it was on so we could function again.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, we've become dependent on the interwebs for so much. Cyber attack or EMP would be crippling.
ReplyDeleteI still use checks but only because I like to be in control of my money. Must be the former banker in me. I would really miss the access to information if the Internet were attacked. That would drive me up a wall.
ReplyDeleteRussian cyber attacks on our democratic process is another threat that is constant looming over us and congress isn't doing anything. I think.
ReplyDeleteI still use our checkbook..too scary to go paperless for us. I do have three credit cards that I pay off monthly over the phone, I like that feature versus automatic bill pay. Electricity and phone bills are dropped off in their appropriate boxes in town no postage needed. I know many people are completely paperless...we are slow and old:)
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