Doomsday scenario: Wall Street gets e-bombed

The end of the world as we know it? PCWorld has sketched out five IT doomsday scenarios when it comes to technology, that is, scenarios that could usher in mass confusion and even destruction such that the world seems to cease functioning.

Scenario No. 2 is Wall Street gets e-bombed--"News flash: In what authorities suspect was the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse weapon, a rogue attacker took down much of lower Manhattan today -- causing equipment failures and power outages on a massive scale and shutting down financial markets across the country."

We don't hear a lot about electromagnetic pulse weapons, but they could do some serious damage. EMP devices "emit extremely high-frequency signals that fry electronics to a crisp, rendering them useless." They wipe out data and are largely untraceable. "A van with an EMP device in the back could effectively shut down big chunks of the U.S. economy simply by driving down Wall Street with the signal turned up." Whew! 

For more:
- here's the PCWorld article