The UK is to take part in an international exercise that
will test the ability of governments and industry to respond to
major international cyber attacks.
The exercise, dubbed Cyber Storm II, is due to take place in
March 2008. It will model a range of hacking and terrorism attacks
designed to disrupt internet communications and damage critical
national infrastructures.
The exercise will bring together security experts from industry
and government in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand over five
days, to test their responses to a gradually unfurling cyber attack
as it escalates into an international incident.
Jerry Dixon, deputy director of operations for the National
Cyber Security Division's US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, told
Computer Weekly that the exercise would test realistic scenarios,
including terrorism attacks on critical communications systems.
More than 100 government agencies - including the FBI, the US
Department of Defense and the UK's National Infrastructure Security
Co-ordination Centre - and private sector organisations would take
part in the exercise, Dixon said.
The exercise builds on an earlier Cyber Storm simulation last
year, which modelled an escalating series of attacks against the
root certification authorities of the internet, which validate
genuine websites. It also simulated hackers attacking passenger
screening systems at airports and defacing websites.
"Part of the aim of the exercise was for people to separate out
the serious threats from the noise," said Dixon.
"Early on in the week there were a number of isolated attacks.
By Wednesday it was clear that the attacks were connected and had
national implications."
The next exercise would test whether governments, security
suppliers and businesses had learned key lessons from Cyber Storm,
said Dixon.
"One lesson is that you have to quickly bring in the right
people from industry. You need to have companies that are experts
in the area you are dealing with," he said.
Being able to communicate with businesses and organisations that
might be affected by the attacks, and being able to give them
advice on countermeasures, was also critical, said Dixon.
Cyber Storm exercise report
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