From Dark Reading

Cyber Storm III under way; biennial cybersecurity exercise aims to test preparedness

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- No, the U.S. isn't under cyberattack. But this week, government and private security response groups began exercises to see what would happen if it were.

Cyber Storm III, the third in a series of large-scale simulations that test the nation's cyber defenses every other year, is under way. And the simulators aren't messing around.

Here at the Cyber Storm III Exercise Control Cell, located in the Secret Service headquarters building, more than 100 players are creating simulated cyber "events" to test the mettle of the more than 1,000 participants who would respond to a real cyber emergency.

The simulation team has prepared 1,700 to 1,800 "injections" designed to elicit reactions from various U.S. cyber response programs, including the National Cyber Incident Response Plan and the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, says Brett Lambo, director of Homeland Security's Cyber Exercise Program.

"We're tracking what was the expected player reaction and what was the actual reaction," Lambo says. "We want to make it as real as possible."

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