Homeland Security's 'Cyber Storm' War Game

By Sharon Weinberger
January 31, 2008 10:10:44 AM
Categories: Strategery
Courtesy Of: Wired.com

"Hackers, bloggers and even reporters" are the villains in a mock "Cyber Storm" war game, reports the Associated Press:

After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files.

The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. described as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing another multimillion-dollar war game, Cyber Storm 2, to take place in early March.

"They point out where your expectations of your capabilities may be overstated," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP. "They may reveal to you things you haven't thought about. It's a good way of testing that you're going to do the job the way you think you were. It's the difference between doing drills and doing a scrimmage."

In one amusing aside, AP also reports that during the simulation "someone quietly attacked the very computers used to conduct the exercise. Perplexed organizers traced the incident to overzealous players and sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" reminding them not to probe or attack the game computers."

The story is the result of AP's two-year struggle to get the Cyber Storm documents under a Freedom of Information Act request (most of the records were blacked out).