4 ms·

Oil does require infrastructure. What you put in your car is several steps removed from what is pumped out of the ground.

jkubicek 5y ago
I think the parent's point was that if oil infrastructure is completely disrupted, consumers won't even be affected for a few days and the short-term consequences will be somewhat minor (some percentage of drivers won't be able to drive, deliveries may be delayed). If a hospital is shut down, then people will start dying immediately. The consequences are much more direct and severe.
- dbt00 5y ago
  I think this is simplistic and overlooks logistics and flexibility. If a hospital closes, patients can be moved. If there's no gas, patients can't get to any hospital.
  - Karunamon 5y ago
    At least in the cities I've lived in, there tends to be a lot of internetworking in the local hospitals. If my local hospital, CRMC, were to be hit by ransomware or otherwise taken down it's likely that a good chunk of the city's health infra would be out or at least at risk too. Not to mention the damage an attacker could do to the data stored in an EHR system like Epic.
  - pixl97 5y ago
    What if you attack the hospital in the middle of, lets say a covid outbreak, where no excess capacity is available. Now you've likely caused a significant number of deaths.
  - jkubicek 5y ago
    My point (which wasn't well made, admittedly) is that a closed hospital has immediate and material effects. Disrupted petroleum infrastructure isn't going to affect consumers for days.
- 3GuardLineups 5y ago
  lolwut? this is insane. If oil infrastructure is completely disrupted it would be beyond catastrophic. Oil is completely foundational to our economy
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  hospitals without IT don't just kill all their patients and shut down. They slow down and loose capacity and capability while the realtively low-tech business of doctoring continues.
skynet-9000 5y ago
Nor can you store gasoline for long unless you stabilize it (and even then), and certainly not safely in most residences. Classic car owners run into this issue, as do the diesel tanks for generators in datacenters (diesel is much more stable than gasoline)

jkubicek 5y ago

I think the parent's point was that if oil infrastructure is completely disrupted, consumers won't even be affected for a few days and the short-term consequences will be somewhat minor (some percentage of drivers won't be able to drive, deliveries may be delayed). If a hospital is shut down, then people will start dying immediately. The consequences are much more direct and severe.

dbt00 5y ago
I think this is simplistic and overlooks logistics and flexibility. If a hospital closes, patients can be moved. If there's no gas, patients can't get to any hospital.
- Karunamon 5y ago
  At least in the cities I've lived in, there tends to be a lot of internetworking in the local hospitals. If my local hospital, CRMC, were to be hit by ransomware or otherwise taken down it's likely that a good chunk of the city's health infra would be out or at least at risk too. Not to mention the damage an attacker could do to the data stored in an EHR system like Epic.
- pixl97 5y ago
  What if you attack the hospital in the middle of, lets say a covid outbreak, where no excess capacity is available. Now you've likely caused a significant number of deaths.
- jkubicek 5y ago
  My point (which wasn't well made, admittedly) is that a closed hospital has immediate and material effects. Disrupted petroleum infrastructure isn't going to affect consumers for days.
3GuardLineups 5y ago
lolwut? this is insane. If oil infrastructure is completely disrupted it would be beyond catastrophic. Oil is completely foundational to our economy
skeeter2020 5y ago
hospitals without IT don't just kill all their patients and shut down. They slow down and loose capacity and capability while the realtively low-tech business of doctoring continues.

skynet-9000 5y ago

Nor can you store gasoline for long unless you stabilize it (and even then), and certainly not safely in most residences. Classic car owners run into this issue, as do the diesel tanks for generators in datacenters (diesel is much more stable than gasoline)