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.
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