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Guard attacks on demand

Guardsmen waging war in cyberspace with local agencies at their bidding

A member of the Washington National Guard monitors a penetration test conducted during a recent cyber warfare operation. Photo credit: J.M. Simpson

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You may not be interested in cyber warfare and all that it embodies, but it is certainly interested in you.

By the end of 2013, this country entered the era of the mega-breach when Russian-speaking hackers stole 40 million credit-card numbers after penetrating Target Corp. computer systems.

Cyber-attacks are commonplace; companies like Adobe Systems, J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, eBay, Anthem Inc. and others have experienced such attacks.

While the specific reasons for these attacks can vary, the end result is the same - serious damage to the infrastructure undergirding this nation's economy.

Eye opening does not describe the challenges this state's computer savvy citizen-soldiers confront in protecting critical entities from an attack.  And they are employing those skills to purposely attack willing participants before actual bad guys do the same.

"The threat exists," Lt. Col. Tom Muehleisen, a cyber planner, said.

Muehleisen often made allusions to the old Star Trek TV series.

"There can be a Romulan war bird parked off the coast."

Can this war bird unleash a photon torpedo that can damage if not destroy part of the state's and/or nation's critical infrastructure?

"Yes," Muehleisen answered. "Our mission is to assume a defensive position, to protect critical infrastructure from attack."

Where are these attacks coming from?

"There is no such thing as a fully secure network," he continued.  "In this business, you work under the assumption of a breach."

To that end, Muehleisen and his small team of cyber warfare specialists work to defend against cyber attacks.

While there is no such thing as a fully secure network, critical agencies must make themselves more secure from a binary borne assault.

A cyber attack is a deliberate exploitation of computer systems employed by individuals or organizations that target - zero in on, if you will - computer information systems, networks and/or personal computing devices through the use of malicious code to alter operations or data.  

This attack generally results in a series of disruptive consequences that can compromise data and lead to theft, alteration, manipulation or the destruction of a specific computer system.

If a group of bad actors were to successfully deploy computer technology to destroy a power company's ability to provide power, we all could be living in the dark.

"I believe all utilities have to be concerned about their cyber security," wrote Benjamin Beberness, Snohomish County Public Utility District 1's chief information officer, in an email.

The district, or SnoPUD, is a public utility that provides power to 325,000 customers in Snohomish County and on Camano Island.

The utility is the second largest public utility in the Pacific Northwest, and it is the 12th largest in the country.  

To bad actors with intent to do harm to this country's power grid, SnoPUD is a prime target.

"Every day someone is knocking on SnoPUD's door trying to see what is inside," continued Beberness.

The knocking on the door can and sometimes does come in the form of a powerful cyber attack.

Think of that Romulan war bird parked off the coast of Washington potentially arming a photon torpedo and you're getting the idea.

About two years ago, Beberness asked the Guard if it would create "SnoPUD #1 Cyber Security Defense Assessment" in order to test SnoPUD's ability to defend itself.

In conducting the test, the Guard fielded a small but highly intelligent and experienced team of determined aggressors.

Penetration, testing and understanding the vulnerabilities of SnoPUD's computer infrastructure and key resources underscored the team's actions.

The team took its role seriously; it pulled no punches in testing SnoPUD's ability to protect itself.

Just as important, in conducting the test, the Guard's cyber warriors zeroed in on the utilities' "smart grid lab," a perfect replica of SnoPUD's actual computer driven operations center.

The cyber warriors utilized a penetration test, or pen test, to assess SnoPUD's abilities to protect itself.

It is the blunt end of the Guard's assessment driven photon torpedo launched into SnoPUD's smart grid lab.

During the test, the Guard's cyber warriors entered the lab and began moving from one section to another.

"The goal is to get in, look around, and leave without a trace.  This testing is a good way to get the attention of the technicians at SnoPUD," Muehleisen said.

"If we touch you, we own you."

The Guard personnel involved in this operation had little trouble leaving their fingerprints behind as they found and exploited SnoPUD's vulnerabilities to an actual cyber attack.

"SnoPUD is very good at what it does," Muehleisen continued.

"They are a proactive agency when it comes to defending against cyber attacks; SnoPUD pushes this agenda at the national level in order to convince other public utilities to engage with organizations like the Guard."

If agencies critical to the nation's infrastructure don't engage in discussions like SnoPUD and the Washington National Guard have, the Romulans most certainly will.

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