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"Ensuring the security of electronic data, both in the private and
public sectors, is critical to protecting public safety, critical
infrastructure and our economy," said Blagojevich. "Just as we
continually prepare for natural disasters, we must also be prepared
to respond to a man-made disaster, such as a cyber attack." In
addition to Illinois, states participating in the exercise are
California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Participating countries are the
United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United
Kingdom. The primary state agencies involved in the exercise are the
Department of Central Management Services, the Illinois State
Police, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Illinois
Department of Transportation, with several other agencies having
limited involvement.
Since Tuesday, bits of exercise-related information have been
provided to various exercise participants as the scenario develops.
On Thursday, the scenario escalates with the activation of the State
Emergency Operations Center in Springfield following a simulated
hacking of a state computer system. Another key development on
Thursday involves the Decatur Police Department, which will conduct
a mock emergency response team arrest of suspects linked to exercise
scenario incidents in Illinois, Colorado, Michigan and at the
federal level. The Macon County Emergency Management Agency will
also be participating in the exercise by partially activating their
county Emergency Operations Center.
Central Management Services, which maintains the Illinois Century
Network -- the state's cyber network -- is using the exercise to
test how the state responds in the event of a coordinated cyber
attack on its information technology infrastructure. CMS will
scrutinize its communication, command and control -- once the cyber
villains have broken into the state network.
"Illinois plays an important role in Cyber Storm II in that it
helps prepare the state for the very real threat of a coordinated
cyber attack on its network infrastructure," said Maureen T.
O'Donnell, acting director of CMS. "The Illinois Century Network
touches over 8,000 schools, hospitals, local and state governments
in Illinois."
Through its participation in the exercise, the Illinois State
Police hopes to test critical technical systems and allow the agency
to closely examine information technology operations. One goal of
the exercise scenario is to analyze the communication between
Illinois State Police and law enforcement fusion centers around the
nation and the agency's ability to communicate with federal, state
and local partners.
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"The Illinois State Police and all of law enforcement must remain
ready to respond to any critical incident, whether it's a natural
disaster, breech of security or an attack to the cyber
infrastructure," said ISP Director Larry G. Trent. "Exercises like
Cyber Storm ensure we are prepared to respond accordingly, and the
means of communication are not compromised on the local, state or
federal level. There is so much to gain from mock incidents
in which agencies
must formulate a coordinated response."
In addition to coordinating state response activities in
Springfield, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency will be
testing the state's capabilities for transmitting multiple video
images of the Decatur incident scene to the State Emergency
Operations Center via satellite. The exercise will also test cameras
with microwave transmitters mounted on an Illinois Department of
Transportation helicopter and an Illinois State Police fixed-wing
airplane to provide a broader perspective of the scene. The video
images from all sources will be viewed by state agency liaisons in
the State Emergency Operations Center, allowing them to see the
scene firsthand and better enable them to determine appropriate
response needs.
"Our ability to send live video images of a disaster scene back
to the SEOC is a tremendous aid to our response planning efforts,"
said Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Andrew Velasquez
III. "When we can actually see what the scene looks like, we can
more effectively match state resources with what is needed. We're
very pleased to have the opportunity to test these capabilities
during this exercise so that we know we're ready to deploy them
during a real disaster."
Velasquez added that Illinois conducted its own cyber exercise in
October 2007 and is implementing lessons learned from that
experience in today's exercise.
Following the exercise, participating state agencies will examine
activities and responses and look for ways to further enhance the
state's response capabilities.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cyber
Storm II is the nation's largest and most comprehensive cyber
security exercise.
[Text from file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information] |
