A well-resourced cyber actor aiming at causing maximum destruction could cause far, far more damage than this … not only switching off power, but destroying parts of the power grid for prolonged periods of time, deleting financial information, significantly disrupting transportation, and shutting down the media and telecommunication network, just to name a few possible strategies.
… the worst possible cyber event may not be that the lights go out but that they will never go out — most of humanity, will slip into a totally controlled environment of Orwellian proportions. This disaster scenario comes without the death and destruction. It is driven by a slow, hardly measurable, and yet steady reinterpretation of information as a weapon. … Imagine a world where literally all information consumed — from your news, your commercials, your entertainment etc. — is wholly built around you with your implied preferences.