The United States Cyber Command hasn't been around for long. In fact, it only reached full operational capability last October. However, things seem to be trundling along quite nicely over as USCYBERCOM, as the command just recently completed its first major attack simulation.
InformationWeek reports that the mock attack, dubbed Cyber Flag, took place over the space of a week at the Air Force Red Flag Facility at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. All told, 300 people participated in the simulation (both on site and off), which involved splitting into two teams, the "good guys" and the "bad guys." The bad guys spent their time throwing everything they had at the Cyber Command's networks, attempting infiltration with malware and other nasty tricks. For their part, the good guys did everything they could to defend the network.
Col. Rivers J. Johnson of the command's public affairs office told InformationWeek that while the Cyber Command was not 100 percent successful in fending off all of the attacks, the majority of threats were identified and deflected "in a timely manner."
"There were a variety of scenarios based on what we think an adversary would do in real world events and real world time," he's quoted as saying. "It was a great exercise."
