Operation 'Cyber Storm' Starts Tomorrow

cyberbian writes "Federal Computing Week reports that the Department of Homeland Security have moved up their rescheduled cyber security exercise, designed to test enterprise and private sector alike. The tests are expected to run from February 6-10, and are intended to gauge the state of readiness for a cyber attack on critical infrastructure. FCW also reports that the scope of the fake attacks will be global, and they are coordinating with partners in Australia, Canada and the UK."

Comments

I wonder

[andreMA]

How much damage they'll end up doing?

Re:I wonder

[alexmipego]

The perfect time to hackers attack. In the middle of the "fake" attacks they can really attack and steal some data. It would be hard to spot. Are they doing this tests in a global way but to their structures only (UK and North America) or are they testing random sites all over the world?

Re:I wonder

[jalet]

Solving such a problem is easy : just tell your president to call Jack Bauer !

good job

[joe 155]

I'm glad that they are doing something like this, in the UK people have been estimating that "in the city" only around 50% of companies are anything like prepaired for an attack of this nature, hopefully this will show people what needs to be done...

I hope no real attacks take place during this time though...

Re:good job

[IAAP]

hopefully this will show people what needs to be done..

Clock out of work when the attack happens and go to the corner pub?

How to parcipate...

[IAAP]

Go to work, turn your machine off, and say "I've voluteered to be someone who was hit by a virus that knocked my machine out of commission."

Then go home for a couple days!

WooHoo!

So....

[interiot]

So all you need to do is find one unlucky zombie on a government IP, and use it to break in to random computers, and people will assume you're a good guy?

Thank Ford!

[paulthomas]

Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say on behalf of the internet community: Thank Ford for the Department of Homeland Security.

Damage

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time i saw something like this, our 'organizataion' was tested.

They caused more damage to us with childhood tactics ( like locking out system accounts ) than doing 'real' tests. We were screwed for a week trying to undo damage, and trying to figure out how it was happening again and again.

Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.

More worrisome threats

[OpenGLFan]

I'm a lot more worried about the damage caused by the "Tiered Internet" proposals currently being bandied about. All network admins know that the damage caused by attackers is insignificant compared to the damage caused by upper management and government meddling.

Re:More worrisome threats

[ScentCone]

All network admins know that the damage caused by attackers is insignificant compared to the damage caused by upper management and government meddling.

All admins do not necessarily agree with this. Most of messes I have to clean up are from malware, fraud, "traditional" crime (and attempts at such) that have taken on a 'net communications component, and the usual tsunami of noise and bot blather that lands on every public-facing port I have open.

Tiered internet? That's a misnomer, I think. Big internet users pay for the bandwidth they (or their visitors) use. More traffic means higher costs. I don't care if some Comcast user has already paid for "his" bandwidth... serving up a streaming video to him isn't only using his bandwidth. I don't know where people get that idea. But regardless, if SBC or Verizon or any other carrier wants to screw with per-site or per-visitor metering or biasing, they're welcome to. Other ISPs will just set a price that's easier to predict and work with, and win the business away from the people trying to make it more complicated. But how much time do I have to give "upper management" or "government meddling" vs. attempted attacks, fraud killing, malware, etc? It's not even close. The bad guys are much more of an issue.

Re:A good idea....

[TubeSteak]

Give us a link to click... we'll make sure it stays broken.

Re:Wait a minute

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Not communism, but capitalist oligarchism. "Enterprise sector" is the Fortune 500 that can buy politicians to manipulate the market to their ends. "Private sector" is everyone else, competing on an increasingly tilted playing field. Hope this clears things up.

Time to Go Phishing

[Billosaur]

I can see it now...

FROM: cyberstorm@dohs.gov

TO: unlucky.recipient@yourcompany.com

SUBJECT: Participation in Cyber Storm exercise

Your company has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security as potentially vulnerable to cyber attack. During the week of February 6th - February 10th, the DoHS will be testing cyber infrastructure as part of our Cyber Storm security exercise. In order to participate, you will need to supply us with [insert favorite hacking data here]...

Cyber Storm?

[Winlin]

I thought for a minute there they were talking about IRC back in the late 90's. Now THERE was a storm of cybering for you. Not that I would..ummm...have any personal knowledge or anything.

Goverments can't hack it

[hutchike]

What makes the government(s) think their fake attack will be anything like a genuine attach? For example, the UK government has a long and famous history of botching every computer initiative (e.g. UK tax credit theft via gov web site).

I doubt the Department of Homeland Security has anything like a globally distributed botnet, or permission to run DDoS like a real attacker might. The virus attack on the Russian stock market is not something goverments can replicate.

The only winners will be the companies who sell the extra bandwidth!

Re:Post-Superbowl?

[ToasterofDOOM]

Ewww ... Mick Jagger naked. I'm gonna go sit in a corner for the rest of the day now, silently crying to myself at the loss of whatever semblance of innocence I had left. If it actually happens, then I guess I'll implode.

What about the information gathered???

[DivideX0]

Suppose their attacks allow them to get into various machines and networks, what will they do with the data that is accesible in those machines?

Is this just another end run around warrantless search and seizures of data?

What kind of oversite is there on this process and how can we be sure the information is not used, stored, or otherwise desiminated among the various US spook agencies and their foreign lackeys.

And how much do you want to bet Google will be a very well excercised target since they have been fighting the governments abuse of power already.

Shouldn't they wait for the next Leap Day?

[EChris]

http://www.april-fools.us/internet-cleaning.htm

Original Message - 1996

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