US Army combines fake hacks, natural disaster simulation to test responses in Charleston, Savannah

US Army combines fake hacks, natural disaster simulation to test responses in Charleston, Savannah
Written by Sep 24, 2020 | CYBERSCOOP

Cybersecurity experts from the U.S. military and the private sector have spent recent weeks working with two American cities to test their ability to respond during a simulated cyberattack layered with several simulated physical disruptions.


The virtual exercise, which has feigned malware and ransomware attacks against targets in Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., over the last several weeks, is aimed at testing participants’ ability to defend against digital threats while simultaneously facing an array of emergency scenarios in the physical realm. While grappling with seeming malicious software attacks, participants also have needed to deal with a fictional cargo ship accident, a flood and the failure of 911 systems.


The U.S. Army, alongside private sector and municipal partners, is wrapping up the exercise, known as Jack Voltaic 3.0, this week.


By assessing municipal and commercial responses to such blended crises, officials aim to understand and mitigate any shortfalls in response that could impact the U.S. military’s ability to deploy out of the two ports, should these cities face a real-world worst-case scenario like the one portrayed in the simulation, said Lt. Col. Doug Fletcher, the Army Cyber Institute’s lead planner for the exercise.


“It’s really looking at: how can we use this to help tax the cities … with not a single catastrophic event, but multiple?” he said. “We’re really trying to understand, what’s the impact cyberattacks have on critical infrastructure, in particular, how does the response impact that and what are some of the gaps and interdependenci ..

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