Exercise will test the National Cyber Incident Response Plan

In the modern world today, many systems in developed nation like the U.S. and our allies are run by computer. From banking to power and other public utilities, computers are a key component of every day modern life and without reliable networks, critical infrastructure in the U.S. could grind to a halt.

As enemies become more complex and technologically savvy, the threat of cyber attacks that could do real world harm to the U.S. and our allies is becoming more and more real every day. In an effort to test the preparedness of the U.S. and other foreign allies to cyber attacks, a test of a new plan for responding to cyber attacks is kicking off today.

The exercise is designed to mimic an attack by an enemy against vital services in the country like power, water, and banking. The exercise involves thousands of cyber-security personnel across the government and in private industry and is being run by the Department of Home Land Security, and is called Cyber Storm III. The drill will last three to four days according to Reuters.

The DHS National Cybersecurity Agency said in a release, "At its core, the exercise is about resiliency -- testing the nation's ability to cope with the loss or damage to basic aspects of modern life."

The goal of the exercise is to determine if the new National Cyber Security Incident Response Plan that was ordered by Obama is up the task of protecting the country against a real threat. The test will have participants from 11 states, 12 foreign countries, and 60 private countries reports Reuters. Those foreign countries involve Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

Other cabinet level departments within the government are participating in the exercise along with the DHS including representative from intelligence, law-enforcement, and the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Energy, Treasury, Justice, and Transportation. No details on exactly what the exercise will entail were offered to preserve the surprise nature of the drill. The simulation will have no impact on real networks that are in operation around the country.

Cyber attacks have already occurred around the globe. Israel was recently accused of a cyber attack against a nuclear power plant in Iran.

A computer virus dubbed the world's "first cyber superweapon" by experts and which may have been designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities has found a new target -- China.

The Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc in China, infecting millions of computers around the country, state media reported this week.

Stuxnet is feared by experts around the globe as it can break into computers that control machinery at the heart of industry, allowing an attacker to assume control of critical systems like pumps, motors, alarms and valves.

It could, technically, make factory boilers explode, destroy gas pipelines or even cause a nuclear plant to malfunction.

The virus targets control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities.

"This malware is specially designed to sabotage plants and damage industrial systems, instead of stealing personal data," an engineer surnamed Wang at antivirus service provider Rising International Software told the Global Times.

"Once Stuxnet successfully penetrates factory computers in China, those industries may collapse, which would damage China's national security," he added.

Another unnamed expert at Rising International said the attacks had so far infected more than six million individual accounts and nearly 1,000 corporate accounts around the country, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Stuxnet computer worm -- a piece of malicious software (malware) which copies itself and sends itself on to other computers in a network -- was first publicly identified in June.

It was found lurking on Siemens systems in India, Indonesia, Pakistan and elsewhere, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to software security researchers.

A Beijing-based spokesman for Siemens declined to comment when contacted by AFP on Thursday.

Yu Xiaoqiu, an analyst with the China Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre, downplayed the malware threat.

"So far we don't see any severe damage done by the virus," Yu was quoted by the Global Times as saying.

"New viruses are common nowadays. Both personal Internet surfers and Chinese pillar companies don't need to worry about it at all. They should be alert but not too afraid of it."

A top US cybersecurity official said last week that the country was analysing the computer worm but did not know who was behind it or its purpose.

"One of our hardest jobs is attribution and intent," Sean McGurk, director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), told reporters in Washington.

"It's very difficult to say 'This is what it was targeted to do,'" he said of Stuxnet, which some computer security experts have said may be intended to sabotage a nuclear facility in Iran.

A cyber superweapon is a term used by experts to describe a piece of malware designed specifically to hit computer networks that run industrial plants.

"The Stuxnet worm is a wake-up call to governments around the world," Derek Reveron, a cyber expert at the US Naval War School, was quoted as saying Thursday by the South China Morning Post.

"It is the first known worm to target industrial control systems."