Even the army is not sufficiently prepared
With enough criminal energy, the corresponding elements can render medical devices, all vehicles (including armored vehicles), all communication technologies, consumer electronics, computers or server farms very quiet or useless in a small area around a sufficiently sized device. Even the military is not adequately prepared for EMP, as criticized by a government-commissioned investigation by the US EMP Commission in 2008.
It was very different during the Cold War era. At that time, the other evil superpower was still expected to drop atomic bombs on you, and a side effect of an atomic bomb that exploded in the earth's magnetic field is always an EMP.
There were strict regulations on how to protect electronics or where that was impractical (antenna receivers, for example, are difficult to secure) there were trained drills to quickly replace systems damaged. Purpose-built non-nuclear EMP weapons that have been around since the 1950s were also part of the threat scenario. Because an electromagnetic pulse is a very selective weapon.
It doesn't harm anyone (apart from pacemakers), it doesn't damage buildings, it doesn't damage infrastructure, it just renders electronics useless. Those who do not want to bombard their opponent in the lunar landscape, but want to occupy something conquering, first play with such thoughts - by the way, even today. Chinese and Russian researchers are working on atomic bombs that are supposed to hit even the most secure military electronics with a particularly destructive "Super EMP."
This invisible danger can be avoided with little effort. A GPS jammer, for example, reveals its own position via its signal. In wartime, such a disrupted missile would simply flip over at the source of the interfering signal. The police could do the same in a more peaceful setting; he could control the origin of the interference signal and thus quickly send the appropriate social sanctions to the GPS sanctioner.
The truck driver might prefer to pay the toll if there is a risk of paying airport downtime costs. And maybe there's something good about the growing spread of GPS whining after all. It makes us aware of the fragility of our technology, the finesse of our everyday electronic wallpaper - without immediately invoking a cold war.
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