Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Cyber War Game

Yesterday a cyber war game was held in Washington, DC that exposed the vulnerabilities of our nation to a coordinated cyber attack. According to this story by Ellen Nakashima in The Washington Post, the simulated attack was intended “to demonstrate to a complacent public the plausibility of an attack that could in many ways be as crippling as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes. Organizers said they wanted to prod Congress and the Obama administration to act.”

Congress appears to be sitting on its hands. Dr. Robert M. Gates, the Secretary of Defense, had initially intended for the proposed U.S. Cyber Command to be fully operational by this October but so far the necessary legislative approvals have reportedly been held up in Congress over privacy concerns.

1 comments:

Eludius said...

I read a case study last year where a military officer was put in charge of the B team of a war game and was told that the A team run by the government officials was expected to win, but they needed him to coordinate the defensive for testing purposes only. He decisively beat the A Team. Then they made him do it again with a list of restrictions. Very interesting study. I wish I could remember the name of the B team leader.