Europe Simulates Total Cyber War 80
Tutter writes with this quote from the BBC:
"The first-ever cross-European simulation of an all out cyber attack was planned to test how well nations cope as the attacks slow connections. The simulation steadily reduced access to critical services to gauge how nations react. The exercise also tested how nations work together to avoid a complete shut-down of international links. Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for the digital agenda, said the exercise was designed to test preparedness and was an 'important first step towards working together to combat potential online threats to essential infrastructure.' The exercise is intended to help expose short-comings in existing procedures for combating attacks. As the attacks escalated, cyber security centers had to find ever more ways to route traffic through to key services and sites. The exercise also tested if communication channels, set up to help spread the word about attacks, were robust in the face of a developing threat and if the information shared over them was relevant."
How is this different from a DDoS sim/pen test? (Score:3, Interesting)
How is a mock cyberwar different from a DDoS simulation from the outside and other points, combined with a thorough penetration test?
A thorough pen test doesn't just scan ports and call it a night, the testers call employees pretending to be IT or managers and demand/browbeat for access, either to be handed a password for "auditing" reasons, or because the main IT people are supposedly gone for the day and a remote OEM needs access. I have even seen some thorough pen tests actually drop U3 USB flash drives in the parking lot that if autorun, would note which machine got "compromised".
I just don't see anything here that is different from hiring a thorough tiger team to test every piece of an organization's security (which companies should do at random times throughout the year.)
help? (Score:1, Interesting)
At which point in their simulation are they planning on having USA saving their asses?
Can simulate all wars, instead of fighting them? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure would save a lot of lives, materials and money. Oh, wait, they tried that on Star Trek and it ended in tears, until Captain Kirk shutdown the simulation.
Re:help? (Score:1, Interesting)
After America spends years ignoring the biggest threat to civilisation ever, only responds when America's threatened, and then contributes a tiny amount of resource (both as a total compared to USSR, Britain, France, Canada, and as a % of their size) and then goes on and on about it for ever. Just like WW2 then.