{"id":40883,"date":"2016-01-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/"},"modified":"2016-01-01T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T15:00:00","slug":"true-cyber-attack-threat","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Cyber Attack Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are constantly bombarded with the threat of cyber-attacks&mdash;like foreign hackers trying to gain access to highly sensitive data, or like the Stuxnet attack that shut down a power grid. But there&#39;s a bigger threat to shutting down America&#39;s power grid, a sneaky, small, homegrown threat&mdash;squirrels. Squirrels have successfully attacked America&#39;s power grid systems 623 times, compared to the one time by outside hackers. So the score is: Squirrels &#8211; 623; Other Attackers &#8211; 1. As the story says, &quot;The real cyber enemy lives inside&mdash;a true insider threat&mdash;and has been attacking national power lines for decades: squirrels.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em><strong>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>While humorous, it does bring to light the idea that we can focus on watching out for the big attacks on our Christian life. And at the same time miss the tiny attacks that can cause the same amount of harm. In other words, the real threat may start from within.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[407,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3770,4546,4560,4978,5090,5134],"tax_ctp_topics":[387,395,397],"class_list":["post-40883","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-destructive-sin","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-old-man","tax_ctp_tags-sin-nature","tax_ctp_tags-struggle-against-sin","tax_ctp_tags-temptation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The True Cyber Attack Threat - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The True Cyber Attack Threat - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are constantly bombarded with the threat of cyber-attacks&mdash;like foreign hackers trying to gain access to highly sensitive data, or like the Stuxnet attack that shut down a power grid. But there&#039;s a bigger threat to shutting down America&#039;s power grid, a sneaky, small, homegrown threat&mdash;squirrels. Squirrels have successfully attacked America&#039;s power grid systems 623 Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/\",\"name\":\"The True Cyber Attack Threat - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-01T15:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-01T15:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The True Cyber Attack Threat\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The True Cyber Attack Threat - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/true-cyber-attack-threat\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The True Cyber Attack Threat - CT Pastors","og_description":"We are constantly bombarded with the threat of cyber-attacks&mdash;like foreign hackers trying to gain access to highly sensitive data, or like the Stuxnet attack that shut down a power grid. 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