Cyber war games play out in Maryland

Cyber security experts from across the spectrum of the government gathered last week for the 2010 Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX), an annual test of information assurance professionals, at a Lockheed Martin facility in Greenbelt, MD. 

The National Security Agency’s (NSA) simulated “war game” is one of the nation’s most sophisticated and expansive, pitting students from the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, West Point, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Royal Military College of Canada against one another in a week long event that seeks to challenge their cyber defense skills. 

Although much of what goes on during the exercise is kept under wraps, Captain Mike Henson, of the Air Force Academy, spoke to CNet about the 2010 exercise.

“Their mission is to keep those services running while thwarting attempts to compromise our systems,” Henson told the Web site in an interview. “The threats tend to cover the full range from downloaded attachments and links taking our users to malicious Web sites to direct scanning, enumeration, and attempt at exploitation.”

This year’s “red team” exercise also included a “grey” user -- an “uneducated” individual who increases the possibility of threats by clicking on every link sent to them via the closed network’s e-mail system. Given the likelihood of computer virus transmissions occurring in such a way, the “grey” user provides an additional real world aspect to the annual exercise.

“This year, we have a new twist in that the NSA has provided us with a “grey” cell member to simulate an uneducated user,” Henson told CNet. “This has caused us considerable difficulty since that user is clicking on every link that comes along and downloading and executing e-mail attachments.”

Lockheed provides both the physical space and the virtual space -- a private network that prevents interference with real world systems -- so that students from each school can simulate the defense of computer networks they have designed, built and configured at their respective educational institutions.

“Cyber security has never been as crucial to global security as it is today,” said Darrell Durst, vice president of cyber solutions for Lockheed Martin.

“NSA is leading the charge of developing the next generation of cyber experts through CDX, and we’re very proud to support them in that mission. Participants will test drive real-world strategies and tactics for building smart cyber defenses, fending off hackers, and eradicating malware -- all critical cyber security skills.”

A group of specialists monitor effectiveness of each team in detecting, responding to and recovering from network security intrusions or compromises.