Security News > 2006 > February > Australia tests cyber-terrorism defences
Forwarded from: William Knowles http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/australia-tests-cyberterrorism-defences/2006/02/09/1139379611099.html By Louisa Hearn February 9, 2006 Australia is today putting its technical armoury through its paces during a one-day exercise aimed at repelling a future cyber-terrorism attack. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the Cyberstorm exercise was aimed at testing both the people and the processes behind Australia's key infrastructure such as transport and emergency services. "Complex IT systems underpin many areas of our economy and they need to be defended," he said in a statement. Cyberstorm is part of a larger week-long US-led scenario and is also being run simultaneously today in Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. A spokesman at the Attorney-General's office said the Australian test scenario centred on a fictional group that was trying to "hack into the transport network and disrupt it for their own political agenda". Counter-terrorism police, computer emergency response team AusCERT and a number of other departments are all involved in the cyber-attack scenario alongside officials from the defence force, ASIO, transportation and emergency services. Unlike the US where IT defences will actually be tested out, the Australian side of the operation is purely desk-based. The spokesman said Australian participants were required to liaise with one another to play out the scenario as well as other countries involved in the exercise. Mr Ruddock described the exercise as a key part of the Australian Government's counter-terrorism strategy and the only way to effectively test systems against theoretical attacks. "Terrorists are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to attack and disrupt our way of life. By conducting exercises such as these we increase Australia's ability to detect, prevent and respond to cyber attacks," Mr Ruddock said. The exercise will physically test procedures, communication channels and responses in the event of a cyber attack as well as international communication protocols between countries. The Australian part of the exercise began this morning and comes amid a week-long exercise being run by The US Department of Homeland Security. It is being run here by GovCERT.au, the body that sets policy for protecting the National Information Infrastructure. Later in the week, participants in the US scenario will seek to exploit technical vulnerabilities and attempt to unleash chaos onto transport and communications systems. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org