Fear of frying electromagnetic weapons threaten our data networks. Here's how to stop them

In the 2001 action movie Ocean's Eleven,criminals use an electromagnetic weapon to black out a portion of Las Vegas. Very futuristic, you may say, but the threat is real and growing. The problem is growing because the technology available to attackers has improved even as the technology being attacked has become more vulnerable. Our infrastructure increasingly depends on closely integrated, high-speed electronic systems operating at low internal voltages. That means they can be laid low by short, sharp pulses high in voltage but low in energy-output that can now be generated by a machine the size of a suitcase, batteries included.