DJB July 2009 nth order attacks https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/On-n-th-Order-Attacks-Bilar/82f0bd634066530f7fca1745fa0773aaee364093
"Similarly, the PRC People Liberation Army’s emphasis on asymmetric warfare and ongoing push to develop modern “Assassin’s Mace” weapons within the doctrine of “The Inferior Defeats the Superiors”11 should give some pause. The Director of Foreign Military Studies at the Academy of Military Sciences in Beijing, Major General Pan Junfeng, offered following tidbits reminiscent of nth order warfare (presumably against the US) in a 1996 issue of China Military Science (as cited in [53, p.12]): We can make the enemy’s command centers not work by changing their data system. We can cause the enemy’s headquarters to make incorrect judgments by sending disinformation. We can dominate the enemy’s banking system and even its entire social order. The interested reader is invited to peruse the some of the PLA’s official and unofficial takes on future warfare in [54,53]. We would be remiss in our discussion if we were not to mention an nth order attack against the ultimate ancillary system: Electromagnetic pulse attacks against the electricity grid. An April 2008 report to the US House Armed Services Committee [27] outlined the effects on critical civilian infrastructure, should a nuclear weapon12 be detonated 200-400 miles over Kansas (italics are ours): The functioning of society and the economy is critically dependent upon the availability of electricity. Essentially every aspect of American society requires electrical power to function. Contemporary U.S. society is not structured, nor does it have the means, to provide for the needs of nearly 300 million Americans without electricity. Continued electrical supply is necessary for sustaining water supplies, production and distribution of food, fuel, communications, and everything else that is a part of our economy. [..] No infrastructure other than electric power has the potential for nearly complete collapse in the event of a sufficiently robust EMP attack [..] Large-scale load losses in excess of 10 percent are likely at EMP threat levels. Instantaneous unanticipated loss of load, by itself, can cause system collapse. This is possible at 1 percent loss, and is very likely above 10 percent [..] Should the electrical power system be lost for any substantial period of time, the Commission believes that the consequences are likely to be catastrophic to civilian society. Machines will stop; transportation and communication will be severely restricted; heating, cooling, and lighting will cease; food and water supplies will be interrupted; and many people may die. We therefore close on a somber note: The issues touched upon in this paper are not merely of academic or scientific interest. In practical terms, they go to the very heart of how future conflicts between open societies and their enemies will be waged - and are waged as we speak."
Hoefstra March 2024 "PLA-outsourced hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.
The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by "unrestricted warfare."
