From: ♂ Georgilla the Luminous Gorilla ♀
Date: Mar 3, 2008 12:20 AM


Just read between the lines. 'Anti-globalization hackers" are the enemy. I am anti globalization and the definition of hacker is quite vague. I don't hack. I don't have the skill and wouldn't if I could. Why would 'Anti-globalization hackers" want to shut down water systems and all this BS that would hurt the people? They want to help the people. Our DOD's computers are incredibly easy to break into as demonstrated by Gary Mckinnon. So, here we go again.

I posted this several times today and it kept getting blocked. Changing the title to see if it would make any difference...

Seems like all news sources are all now being censored regarding this massive cyber drill... targetting BLOGGERS. Watchout.

With the Capitol in the background, left, a Washington Metro train makes its way toward Union Station in Washington in this March 25, 2001, file photo. Here's what the Bush administration considers a really bad day: Washington's metro trains shut down. Seaport computers go dark. Bloggers reveal secret locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Control towers are disrupted at airports in Philadelphia and Chicago. A mysterious liquid is found on London's subway. Planes fly too close to the White House. Water utilities in Los Angeles are compromised.

..


Homeland Security Official Link – Cyber Storm II March 2008


http://cryptome.org/cyberstorm.pdf

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Cyber Storm II stirring
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http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151806-1.html

By Ben Bain
February 29, 2008


The Homeland Security Department is getting ready to lead foreign governments, corporations, states and federal agencies on a second round of cyber war games.

During the second week of March, nine states, four foreign governments, 18 federal agencies and 40 private companies will participate in Cyber Storm II — a weeklong simulation designed to better prepare the players for cyberattacks. DHS, FBI and the Defense Department are among the federal agencies that will participate.

The exercise will be the culmination of more than 18 months of planning, led by DHS’ National Cyber Security Division, to design a series of simulations that will test the players’ abilities to respond to cyberattacks on information technology, communications, chemical and transportation infrastructure. The first Cyber Storm exercise, in 2006, focused on air transportation.

Cyber Storm II participants have been broken into two teams: planners and players. The players have not seen any of the scenarios they will have to mitigate.

A source familiar with the planning of the exercise said that this year’s simulation exercises could include elements of organized crime, terrorism or a hacking attempt driven by political goals.

“We are looking at a more sophisticated scenario this time around,” he said. “It’s going to be quite an event.”

The exercise will take place in Washington, but will also be played out virtually by thousands of people worldwide. Australia, along with the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, is planning a simultaneous cyber simulation exercise that will include its military.

Each of Cyber Storm II’s participants will have their own goals and challenges designed to bolster their own abilities. The private-sector participant list includes giants such as Dow Chemical, Microsoft, McAfee, Cisco and Nova Chemicals, among others, the source said.

“The exercise is very much deliberately intended to overload people,” the source said. “We don’t do these things to pat ourselves on the back.”

The exercise stresses confidentiality and afterward DHS will hold an after-session and produce a general lessons-learned document· Participants are encouraged but not required to do the same.

President Bush requested an additional $83.1 million for the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team for fiscal 2009 and has recently made headlines with the issuance of its classified cyber initiative.

Lawmakers have grown increasingly concerned with the job DHS is doing in thwarting cyberattacks, which have increased exponentially in recent years. Congressional staff will be observing the event.


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Threats from everywhere in 'cyber storm'
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Associated Press
Jan 31, 2008

By TED BRIDIS

http://www.examiner.com/a-1192898~Thr ... ere_in__Cyber_Storm_.html

WASHINGTON - In the middle of the biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game to test the nation's hacker defenses, someone quietly targeted the very computers used to conduct the exercise.

The surprising culprit? The players themselves, the same government and corporate experts responsible for detecting and fending off attacks against vital computer systems, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. Perplexed organizers sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" instructing them not to probe or attack the game's control computers.

"Any time you get a group of (information technology) experts together, there's always a desire, 'Let's show them what we can do,'" said George Foresman, a former senior Homeland Security official. "Whether its intent was embarrassment or a prank, we had to temper the enthusiasm of the players."

The exercise was a big deal for all concerned.

The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. describes 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 a multimillion-dollar "Cyber Storm 2," to take place in early March.

Among the mock disasters confronting officials in the previous exercise: Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York went dark. Bloggers revealed locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers were disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid was found on London's subway.

The list of fictional catastrophes — which also included hundreds of people on "No Fly" lists suddenly arriving at airport ticket counters — is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps the White House awake at night. Railway switches failed. Planes flew too close to the White House. Water utilities in Los Angeles were compromised.

The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.

Imagined villains included hackers, bloggers and even reporters. In one scenario, 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 confused the public and financial markets, according to the government's documents.

The upcoming "Cyber Storm 2" in March also will simulate electronic attacks against chemical plants and communication lines, and include targets in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

"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."

The AP obtained the Cyber Storm internal records nearly two years after it requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The government censored most of the 328 pages it turned over, marked "For Official Use Only," citing rules against disclosing sensitive information. The government is still reviewing hundreds more documents before they can be turned over to the AP.

"Definitely a challenging scenario," said Scott C. Algeier, who runs a cyber-defense group for leading technology companies, the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

For the participants — including government officials from the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and executives from technology and transportation companies — the mock disasters came fast and furious: hacker break-ins at an airline; stolen commercial software blueprints; problems with satellite navigation systems; trouble with police radios in Montana; school closures in Washington, Miami and New York; computer failures at border checkpoints.

The incidents, designed to tax responders, were divided among categories: computer attacks, physical attacks and psychological operations.

"We want to stress these players," said Jeffrey Wright, the former Cyber Storm director for the Homeland Security Department. "None of the players took 100 percent of the correct, right actions. If they had, we wouldn't have done our job as planners."

How did they do? Reviews were mixed. Companies and governments worked successfully in some cases. But key players didn't understand the role of the premier U.S. organization responsible for fending off major cyber attacks, called the National Cyber Response Coordination Group, and it didn't have enough technical experts. Also, the sheer number of mock attacks complicated defensive efforts.

The little-known Cyber Response group, headed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, represents the largest government departments, including law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The 2006 exercise had no impact on the real Internet. Officials said they were careful to simulate attacks using only isolated computers, working from basement offices at the Secret Service's headquarters in downtown Washington.