The government plays wargames. They use situations where Bloggers and Journalists are the bad guys.
Seriously..they do. The RawStory writeup this morning was a freaking trip to read..lemme tell ya. From the writeup we learn which departments took part in the 'exercise'-The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise to test the nation's hacker defenses, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.
Whoa, all the heavy hitters no? Then the situations they used:
Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files.
Its that damn liberal media don't ya know? They are plotting the overthrow of the US government. Yeah, we all want to be under the umbrella of the Islamists..oh fuck yeah.
What do these wargames cost? Three million bucks according to the writeup. And, they are planning another one this coming March. The Associated Press has been pushing, via a FOIA request, for two years to get the low-down on these international wargames. The 328 page report was of course heavily redacted.
At least our government is trying to figure it out, I suppose we should be glad about that, right? It was an international affair including "government officials from the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and executives from leading technology and transportation companies". I have read various writeups that state the 'next big attack' will be more a cyber attack than anything else, and with the internet being the main culprit used to bring down American security forces. Richard Clarke's book lays it all out..how it could happen and what would be the result of a cyber attack on our security systems that are old and not up-to-date. This next to last paragraph in the RawStory writeup was interesting:
However, the government's files hint at a tantalizing mystery: In the middle of the war game, someone quietly attacked the very computers used to conduct the exercise. Perplexed organizers traced the incident to overzealous players and sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" reminding them not to probe or attack the game computers.
Gotta be ready for anything from any angle..
