Cyber ShockWave Hits Washington
The Cyber ShockWave simulation, created by former CIA Director General Michael Hayden and the BPC’s National Security Preparedness Group, led by the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Governor Thomas Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, follows the acclaimed series of Oil ShockWave simulations conducted in 2007 by the BPC and Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE). Oil ShockWave addressed dependence on foreign oil as a national security threat. Cyber ShockWave, developed in partnership with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, SMobile Systems, Southern Company, Georgetown University, and PayPal, will highlight the immediate, real dangers of cyber-terrorism by bringing together a bipartisan group of former senior administration and national security officials playing the roles of Cabinet members. The participants, whose mission is to advise the president and mount a response to the attack, will not know the scenario in advance. They will react to the threat in real time, as intelligence and news reports drive the simulation, shedding light on how the difficult split-second decisions must be made to respond to an unfolding and often unseen threat.
National Security Cyber War Game Scenario Broadcast Exclusively on CNN
CNN will air a two-hour production, We Were Warned: Cyber Shockwave, based upon exclusive television access to a national security cyber “war game” scenario. The simulated event was developed by The Bipartisan Policy Center and will debut Saturday, Feb. 20 and Sunday, Feb. 21 at 8pm, 11pm and 2am ET on CNN.
Washington Group Tests Security in ‘Cyber ShockWave’
Amit Yoran, chief executive of NetWitness and former director of the national cybersecurity division at the Department of Homeland Security, said he thinks the simulation is an eye-opener. “This type of exercise is very useful in educating government officials and also in helping the private sector understand what some of the government’s leadership takes into account with the legal authorities,” he said.
Fear, Politics and Budgets
What’s really interesting is not that the exercise participants concluded that the US is ill-equipped to deal with a major suite of cyber attacks (and a couple of bombings for good measure) but the way the dialogue from the exercise works its way into the reporting of the simulation.
Cyber War Game Shuts Down the United States
The war game demonstrated a scenario where monitors showed networks and electric power failing. The worst case included 40 million people with their power cut off, Wall Street shut, and 60 million mobile phones not working any more.
Former Government Officials Gather to Rehearse Cyberwar
The three-hour exercise, held at Washington’s Mandarin Oriental hotel, was more of a role-playing exercise than a full simulation. Panel members seated behind a table debated options they could present to the president, as real-time updates on the situation were provided. At times, participants in the exercise seemed to be grasping at concepts from the global war on terror, posing similar questions about how to deal with countries that provide a haven for cyberterrorists, or whether the president needed to declare the cyber-attack an act of war.
Report: The Cyber ShockWave Event and its Aftermath
Cyber ShockWave started with a vulnerability in the operating systems used by various smartphones. Thanks to a malicious application, celebrating the NCAA’s March Madness, Spyware was loaded onto smartphones that included a keylogger and data intercept component. The application was then used to funnel millions of dollars to banks overseas. From there, the data and money-snatching application morphs, and the malicious application turns the infected devices into bots and adds them to a telecommunications botnet.
Operation Cyber ShockWave
Hopefully this exercise provided realistic attacks and the video coverage will show the decision-makers “making the call” in different scenarios. For obvious reasons, the “big gaping holes” shouldn’t be exposed to the world, but at the very least, it does bring awareness to a problem that governments across the world face on a daily basis – how to handle the dynamic nature of threats as they continually evolve.
Is The U.S. Ready For A Cyberwar?
The U.S. government is in the dark when it comes to cyber attacks.
The View from Inside Cyber ShockWave (Audio)
Former high-level Cabinet and national security officials worked in a fake White House situation room, complete with big screen digital maps of the US, like you’d see in the real thing. Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick played the role of Attorney General and joins us with details fresh from the heat of this simulated cyber battle.
Worth Watching: BPC_Bipartisan and ThisisHNN
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