[ISN] Mother Nature's storms postpone DHS' Cyber Storm

[InfoSec News]

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/27222-1.html

By Wilson P. Dizard III
Contributing Staff Writer
10/19/05

The Homeland Security Department's Cyber Storm exercise, consisting of 
a virtual attack on the nation, has been pushed back from November to 
February 2006 because of resource demands on the federal government 
and infrastructure damage caused by the recent hurricanes in the Gulf 
Coast region, the department and other sources said. 

DHS spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich confirmed that the Cyber Storm
exercise [1] had been pushed forward from next month to February. "It
makes sense to work on real-time occurrences such as hurricanes
Katrina and Rita [before carrying out the exercises]," she said.

"It would be fair to say that the storms required a reallocation of 
resources, [but] all efforts to move forward with Cyber Storm are 
continuing," Petrovich added. 

Terry Benzel, a computer scientist at the University of Southern 
California whose DETER Internet test bed project is scheduled to play 
a key role in Cyber Storm, said the electric utility industry had 
requested the delay so that the companies could repair their shredded 
networks. Electric utility industry sources were not immediately 
available to verify Benzel's statement. 

Cyber Storm is designed to combine a virtual attack on the financial 
sector with a virtual assault on the power grid, as well as a 
simulated array of attacks on physical assets. 

Acting Cybersecurity Division director Andy Purdy had described Cyber 
Storm as an interagency project that would involve participation by 
various critical infrastructure owners in the private sector. 

Wilson P. Dizard III is a senior writer for Washington Technology's 
sister publication, Government Computer News. 

[1] http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/homeland/26631-1.html