The Cyber Storm exercise is a biennial
simulated exercise overseen by the United States
Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
that took place February 6 through February 10, 2006 with the purpose of testing the nation's defenses against
digital espionage.
[Fact Sheet: Cyber Storm Exercise](_blank)
(Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
). Accessed February 1, 2008. The simulation was targeted primarily at American security organizations but officials from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand participated as well.
Cyber Storm I
The first Cyber Storm exercise took place February 6 through February 10, 2006 with the purpose of testing the nation's defenses against
digital espionage.
Simulation
The exercise simulated a large scale attack on critical digital infrastructure such as
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
,
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
, and
energy production
Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include production of renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel derived sources of energy, and for the recovery and reuse ...
. The simulation took place a series of incidents which included:
*
Washington, D.C. Metro trains mysteriously shutting down.
*
Bloggers
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
revealing locations of railcars containing hazardous materials.
*The
airport control towers of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and Chicago mysteriously shutting down.
*A mysterious liquid appearing on a London subway.
*Significant numbers of people on
"no fly" lists suddenly appearing at airports all over the nation.
*Planes flying too close to the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
.
*Water utilities in Los Angeles getting compromised.
Internal difficulties
During the exercise the computers running the simulation came under attack by the players themselves. Heavily censored files released to the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
reveal that at some time during the exercise the organizers sent every one involved an
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
marked "IMPORTANT!" telling the participants in the simulation not to attack the game's control computers.
Performance of participants
The Cyber Storm exercise highlighted the gaps and shortcomings of the nation's cyber defenses. The cyber storm exercise report found that institutions under attack had a hard time getting the bigger picture and instead focused on single incidents treating them as "individual and discrete". In light of the test the Department of Homeland Security raised concern that the relatively modest resources assigned to cyber-defense would be "overwhelmed in a real attack".
Cyber Storm II
Cyber Storm II was an international cyber security exercise sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2008. The week-long exercise was centered in
Washington, DC
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
and concluded on March 15.
Cyber Storm III
Cyber Storm III was an international cyber security exercise sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2010. The week-long exercise was centered in Washington, DC and concluded on October 1.
[Ian Grant]
"Cyber Storm III"
/ref>
See also
* Cyber ShockWave
Cyber ShockWave, similar to the Cyber Storm Exercise, was a 4-hour wargame conducted in February 2010 by the Bipartisan Policy Center, an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Former high-ranking Cabinet and National Security Officials r ...
References
{{Reflist
2006 in computing
Computer security
United States Department of Homeland Security