It was Friday night when the war started; he’d phoned the local Chinese restaurant to order his take away and got the message, ‘The number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and dial again.’ He checked his phone, checked the website and tried again, and again heard the same message. It was the same with the local Indian restaurant with the identical message, ‘the number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and dial again.’
‘Fine,’ he thought, ‘I’ll go for a pizza,’ but on ringing the local Italian pizzeria he got the same message, just as he did when he rang the various food delivery companies, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Uber Eats, and every time it was the same, ‘The number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and dial again.’
The news alert notification on his phone announced ‘Breaking News: Cyber-Hack takes down all take-away food delivery services – More to follow.’
The next alert read: ‘roads around take away restaurants have become congested and grid-locked as customers travel to order and pick up their Friday night take-away meals.’
The Radio and Television broadcasts were now interrupting their services announcing the details of the Cyber-Hack and stating that the Government would clarify the situation over the weekend, with the Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs stating: “this threat to our country’s welfare must be quickly dealt with, any attack on our country’s take away industry is a monstrous act and amounts to a declaration of war.”
The following day the Cyber-Hack had spread to the petrol station forecourts of the major suppliers as well as the major rail networks, compounding the traffic congestion and gridlock. On the Saturday afternoon the e-ticketing facility of the Premiership and Championship and most of the EFL clubs went down, as their digital entry facilities were similarly hacked, and access to the stadiums became impossible, causing near riots outside the numerous football stadiums all over the country. The overworked and overstretched Police already attempting to deal with the widespread traffic congestion, plus the increasing problems on the petrol station forecourts were unable to effectively deal with those football fans unable to gain entry to their various football stadiums around the country, the normally peaceful Saturday afternoon was now being overshadowed by riots and civil unrest.
The Home Secretary made a statement via all the news networks asking for people to remain at home and clear the roads, stating: ‘these attacks on the very fabric of our society indicate that Foreign Actors are trying to bring down the country through an attack on its most basic services, but the Government were dealing with the problem and it would soon be resolved, “We ask for patience” was the underlying message.
On Saturday evening all streaming services to the UK including YouTube were blocked, and the population could only access terrestrial channels for their evening viewing, but ‘Match of The Day’ was still available on the BBC, showing the Premiership teams playing in front of near empty stadiums.
By the end of the weekend the air traffic control systems for the UK’s major airports including all five London airports as well as Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow had gone down preventing all flights from both arriving and departing.
As Monday dawned and the Supermarkets re-opened, their shelves were now being stripped bare as people rushed to stock up with food, but then the automated checkout systems failed and the bar codes could not be read. Customers now had to endure queues of over two hours or more as the harassed supermarket workers had to slowly and manually checkout all items being purchased. Tempers frayed as customers fought over food items, and tried to cut the queues, and the supermarket security staff who were now being overstretched and overwhelmed, as were the police, and little could be done to calm the supermarket customers.
In an emergency statement on the Monday afternoon, to a packed House of Commons, the Prime Minister stated that he, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Defence were now in a ‘Dialogue’ with a number of Foreign Governments who were acting on behalf of those involved with the Cyber Hacks, ‘to reach a peaceful agreement to end this attack on the very fabric of our beloved Country.’
The Leader of the Opposition pledged their support to the Prime Minister, ‘in this hour of need, when our country is being threatened with its very survival.’
By Tuesday Morning, the supermarkets were empty, petrol was not being delivered at the pumps on the station forecourts, the trains were not running, food deliveries were at a standstill and the major airports were closed. As the electricity grid now slowly shut down, an emergency declaration was made by the Prime Minister that afternoon, stating that, ‘an agreement had now been reached with a number of Foreign Powers; and the Government was resigning to be replaced by a ‘Government of Unification’ whose members had been selected by these Foreign Powers, and a return to normality could now be slowly expected.’
The Prime Minister added that once everything had returned to normal The Country would enter the sphere of influence of these Foreign Powers and all current military and defence and trade treaties would be terminated, and replaced with more favourable treaties with their new partners.
It had taken 5 days and not a shot had been fired to bring down the country, and it had all started with a Cyber Attack on the country’s take-away food industry.
Bio:
Henry is a retired Surgeon and member of the Canvey Writers Group.
He has published a number of stories on the CafeLit site.
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