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Final Report: Pan-European Cyber Security Exercise

Posted by Soulskill on from the none-of-us-are-as-dumb-as-all-of-us dept.

Orome1 writes "The EU's cyber security agency, ENISA, has issued its final report (PDF) on the first Pan-European cyber security exercise for public bodies, Cyber Europe 2010. The exercise was conducted on the 4th of November, 2010. Its objective was to trigger communication and collaboration between countries in the event of large-scale cyber-attacks. Over 70 experts from the participating public bodies worked together to counter over 300 simulated hacking attacks aimed at paralyzing the Internet and critical online services across Europe. During the exercise, a simulated loss of Internet connectivity between the countries took place, requiring cross-border cooperation to avoid a (simulated) total network crash."

6 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Cost figures by Tasha26 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I read Paulos' "Innumeracy" book and never quite understood how those security people come up with cost figures for cyber attacks... especially when it's in the billions range e.g. Skynews reports "Last year, cyber attacks cost Britain £27bn. The global hub for targeted attacks is China. An estimated 1.6 billion attacks are launched from the country each month."

    1. Re:Cost figures by Tx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's a good question, and one suspects the answer is that they ask security consultants and companies, who have a stake in hyping up these costs, to pull figures out of the air. Googling gives for example this article, quote

      "In order to figure out the financial losses businesses incurred during 2009, Symantec asked companies to look at a range of factors which negatively impacted them as a result of cyber crime – such as lost revenue, loss of customer relationships and damage to their firm’s brand. This came out at a mean average of £1.2 million per company. "

      Putting a dollar value on "loss of customer relationships", "damage to the firms brand" etc is not even guesswork, it really is just pick-a-number. If the firm wasn't lax in it's security, there shouldn't be any significant damage to the brand. Losses directly due to downtime could be established meaningfully, but overall I think the figures are pretty much as meaningless as the figures the record companies come up with for losses due to piracy.

      --
      Oh no... it's the future.
    2. Re:Cost figures by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Easy. Those security people know that they have to report to upper management, who's nature is to think in money. So the only way to get a serious message passed is to talk money.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    3. Re:Cost figures by Hazel+Bergeron · · Score: 2

      Sky News is basically a British Fox News - same owner and same agenda - slightly toned down to adjust for the slightly more refined tastes of the British public.

      The sad thing is the number of people who whine about Murdoch and his propaganda while still paying him to produce it (via a Sky or newspaper subscription).

  2. Re:if the tubes with clogged with hackers by DamienRBlack · · Score: 2

    How easy would it be to jam HF radios? I mean, the idea is that were being attacked by an entity powerful enough to compromise the most advanced systems in the world, wouldn't radio be an easy task in comparison?

  3. Re:I wish i could laugh harder... by cavreader · · Score: 2

    It must be difficult for someone as smart as you to live in a world filled with idiots. Maybe you should stop hiding your brilliance and straighten these people out once and for all.