The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) last week hosted Cyber Storm VIII, a three-day national cyber exercise whose goal was to test preparedness to a cyber-crisis impacting critical infrastructure.
More than 2,000 participants from government, private sector, and international organizations helped evaluate cybersecurity preparedness and incident response and identify opportunities for information sharing.
During the cyber exercise, participants can simulate the process of discovering and responding to a widespread coordinated cyberattack. The scenario used at Cyber Storm VIII combined operational and traditional enterprise systems targeted in attacks such as ransomware and data exfiltration.
Through Cyber Storm, CISA is working with the nation’s critical infrastructure stakeholders to ensure the continuous assessment and strengthening of cyber resilience, with a focus on critical infrastructure.
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The event is typically planned months in advance, helping organizations be continuously prepared to respond to potentially disruptive cyberattacks. Participants worked together to respond to a simulated incident and will continue to collaborate with CISA to identify and examine lessons learned.
The exercise also offered participants the opportunity to learn about CISA’s role and capabilities in the event of a cyberattack, to improve coordination capabilities, and better understand current cyber risks, CISA says.
“An important part of building cyber preparedness and resilience is exercising incident response capabilities, something CISA and our cybersecurity partners do regularly through exercises like Cyber Storm. CISA will continue to work with government and industry to safeguard our critical infrastructure, but everyone has a role to play,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said.
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