Largest ever simulated cyber-attack exercise

AFP
14 March, 2008


US officials said yesterday that “real and growing” threats to US computer and telecommunications networks were behind the holding of the largest-ever cyber-security exercises this week.

Computer security experts from five countries, more than 40 private sector companies, and numerous government and state agencies are spending a week fielding simulated “real-world,” on-line attacks on the computer systems of government bodies, corporations, transportation and other key industries.

Robert Jamison, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said the Cyber Storm II exercise sought to foster personal links between key officials in business and government.

Those people, he said, are not always willing to share information about security issues involving the networks they run.

“We're concerned that the threats are real and growing” as the Internet expands, Jamison said.

Cyber Storm II tested the warning systems in place for attacks and sought to identify gaps in the way information was shared and reactions co-ordinated across various sectors.

Several dozen experts crowded into a computer-filled room inside the US Secret Service Headquarters in Washington in sections marked off as chemicals, transportation, telecommunications, state and local governments, and other sectors, for the five-day exercise.

Thousands more were tied into the exercise elsewhere in the US, in Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and in major companies like Dow Chemical, Wachovia bank, ABB and Cisco.


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