Cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly targeted and sophisticated, which means businesses, individuals and government need to be vigilant and proactive in deterring breaches that could be devastating.
Members of Hawaii’s Air National Guard, Army National Guard, and state Department of Defense recently participated in a series of cyberdefense exercises conducted from March 7 to 10 at Hawaiian Telcom’s headquarters in Honolulu.
The exercise, jointly organized by the University of Hawaii and University of Washington, featured educational talks by leading national cyberdefense experts, followed by three days of realistic attack-and-defend activities aimed to test participants’ ability to prevent a network security breach.
These types of drills are particularly important for regions such as Hawaii that play a critical role in the nation’s defense strategy and operations.
The exercise was set up with four blue teams playing the role of network defenders. These groups consisted of members of the recently established Computer Network Defender teams, which were created by the National Guard in various states to more quickly respond to computer security incidents in their area. Each blue team was given a network to defend with a number of common servers to maintain and keep online throughout the attacks.
The red team, or attackers, consisted primarily of students from the University of Washington’s information security program, and was led by a member of the Washington State Army National Guard.
The team from UW is the best in the nation, having won the national Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition for the last two years.
Red team members were challenged to breach the four blue networks and steal data or disrupt their operations.
In one instance, red team members were able to gain a foothold into some of the blue networks, which reinforced the need for defenders to be on the lookout for social engineering and other attacks that are not directly aimed at the network, but at the defenders themselves.
Exercises such as these are important because they allow cybersecurity specialists the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge of lesser known security breach tactics and how to respond quickly and efficiently.
Collaborative efforts of government, universities, and corporations through events like the "Big Splash" are critical to developing broad capabilities to meet ever-growing cyberthreats.
At the end of the four-day event, organizers were extremely pleased with the results and have already begun to make plans for a similar event later this year involving more information security professionals from the private sector.
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Hawaiian Telcom Information Security Director Beau Monday is a local cybersecurity expert. Reach him at Beau.Monday@hawaiiantel.com.
