00:00Did you know the U.S. government discovered it could lose a war without a single shot being fired and
00:04couldn't tell anyone?
00:05In 1997, the NSA ran a secret exercise called Operation Eligible Receiver.
00:11A red team was given one simple rule. Use only tools anyone could buy or download.
00:16No classified software. No special access.
00:19Within weeks, they had demonstrated the ability to disrupt power grids,
00:23knock out 911 emergency systems, and penetrate Pacific Command networks.
00:28The results were devastating. And then they were locked away.
00:31Because here was the problem. The infrastructure they had just torn apart wasn't owned by the government.
00:37It belonged to private companies. The fixes would cost billions.
00:40And the evidence proving how bad things were couldn't be shown to the people who actually needed to act.
00:45Officials knew the threat was catastrophic. They just couldn't prove it to anyone outside a classified briefing room.
00:51Operation Eligible Receiver became the moment U.S. critical infrastructure policy had to begin.
00:55And it proved something uncomfortable. The government knew about this vulnerability decades before the public ever did.
01:01The government knew about it. The government knew about it.
01:01The government knew about it. The government knew about it. The government knew about it.
01:01The government knew about it. The government knew about it. The government knew about it.
