How Would the U.S. Respond to a Nightmare Cyber Attack?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-would-us-respond-nightmare-cyber-attack

By Josephine Wolff
Scientific American
July 23, 2013

It’s been a busy summer for computer security mavens. The U.S. and China 
locked horns on cyber espionage, Edward Snowden allegedly leaked 
classified intelligence about National Security Agency (NSA) monitoring 
programs that target communication networks, and the Cobalt malware took 
13 U.S. oil refineries offline. If you missed that last one, that’s 
because it was fictional -- a scenario created for a student cyber attack 
challenge held on June 15 at American University in Washington, D.C.

The event was a sort of a hybrid Model U.N. hackathon cyber war games 
exercise, involving 65 college and graduate students (including myself) 
who are training for careers as future cyber warriors and policy makers. 
In many ways the Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge mirrors the U.S. 
government’s own Cyber Storm exercises, with the important exception that 
the student exercise isn’t mandated by Congress to strengthen cyber 
preparedness in the public and private sectors.

The Cobalt malware -- an invention of the Atlantic Council, which hosted 
the event - was fake, but its target was a real-life vulnerability: the 
U.S. energy infrastructure, specifically the oil refineries and pipelines 
that produce and transport gasoline and other refined fuel products all 
across the country. Almost any discussion or description of a doomsday 
cyber scenario involves an attack on U.S. critical infrastructure. You can 
see this play out in the Cyber Storm exercises hosted every few years by 
the Department of Homeland Security for government and industry 
organizations to practice cyber threat responses. In three simulations 
that took place in 2006, 2008 and 2010, catastrophic cyber attacks caused 
clear and serious physical damage. A computer virus that turns off the 
lights, shuts down the telephone system and halts military operations 
could cost lives.

[...]

--
Find the best InfoSec talent without breaking your budget!
Post a Job! $99 for 31 days
http://www.hotinfosecjobs.com/