VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. –
The Virginia National Guard brought together multi-national and inter-agency partners to execute Cyber Fortress 3.0, a water management cyber incident response, to exercise the Commonwealth of Virginia’s cyber incident response process July 7-20, 2024, at the State Military Reservation, Virginia Beach.
“Every organization and individual in the state is a target,” said Col. Gerald A. Mazur, exercise director and commander of the Information Operations Support Center. “We do what we can to prevent cyber attacks, but ultimately it is not a matter of ‘if’ we get attacked, it is ‘when.’ We need to be able to detect and respond swiftly to cyber attacks to restore critical services to the citizens of the commonwealth.”
Mazur said that responding to cyber attacks is about training, building partnerships and exercising the response process.
“That is why the National Guard is well suited to support the commonwealth in a time of cyber crisis, and Cyber Fortress is just one way we prepare for that,” he said.
The Cyber Fortress 3.0 exercise aimed to foster private-public collaboration and assess the cybersecurity readiness of energy and transportation stakeholders, explained Maj. Andres Slonopas, the exercise planner with the IOSC. The event brought together a diverse group, including water utilities as the critical infrastructure partner. The goal of the exercise was to enable stakeholders to understand how multiple levels of industry and government respond and work together to mitigate a cyber-attack against commercial critical infrastructure, he said.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that nation-state actors are attempting to destabilize the nation’s environment by attacking cyber networks to disrupt community lifelines through attacks on critical infrastructure systems, erode public trust through disinformation and compromise the ability of the United States to defend the homeland and project power globally,” said Shawn Talmadge, State Coordinator and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Talmadge said this scenario is not unlike the nuclear threat of the mid-1900s, which terrified the world and the American people and precipitated a greater planning effort than had yet been required of civil defense.
“Exercises such as the Cyber Fortress series provide an opportunity for local-state-federal agencies and private sector partners to discuss the process of gaining situational awareness that an incident has occurred, conducting an assessment of the situation to understand its complexity, standardizing reporting procedures to reduce variability from one incident to the next, and implementing a unified approach to coordinate efforts at all levels,” Talmadge said.
During the exercise, military and civilian cyber operators were partnered with a county water authority representative in enclaves to simulate the process they would follow to respond to and mitigate a cyber attack.
“The exercise provided valuable insights into the current state of cybersecurity readiness and helped stakeholders develop more effective disaster recovery procedures,” Slonopas said. “By bringing together cyber operators from the 91st Cyber Brigade, the Virginia Air National Guard, more than 12 different federal Partners, multiple state organizations, two NATO partners and multiple utilities, the exercise provided a more comprehensive view of the cybersecurity landscape and the potential impact of a cyber-attack on critical infrastructure. Overall, the Cyber Fortress exercise was a valuable opportunity for stakeholders to collaborate, learn, and improve their cybersecurity posture.”
Mazur said Cyber Fortress 3.0 exercised the Commonwealth's Cyber Incident Response process with all the state, federal, local, and private partners and also trained about 135 personnel including VNG and private partners on protecting and defending ICS/SCADA networks. The exercise was based on actual historical malicious cyber incidents on Unites States-based water systems.
“Cyber Fortress exposed uniformed personnel to evolving technology influencing the way the Army will fight in the future, including artificial intelligence and solar,” Mazur said. “The exercise also engage senior leaders and legislators in order to gain buy in and support for future Cyber Fortress exercises.”
International partners taking part in the exercise include Estonia and Finland, and Finnish Defence Forces were able to take part in the exercise remotely from Finland.
The Virginia National Guard and Finland are partners in the National Guard’s State Partnership Program, and Mazur said the exercise continued to solidify that partnership from a cyber context.
VNG units taking part in the exercise included the 91st Cyber Brigade along with the 123rd and 124th Cyber Protection Battalions, each with a cyber warfare and cyber security company, the Defensive Cyberspace Operations Element from Joint Force Headquarters - Virginia, the Virginia Air National Guard’s 185th Cyber Operations Squadron and the Virginia Defense Force’s 31st Cyber Battalion.
“The VDF performed admirably throughout the exercise and were on par with their peers in the Army National Guard and Air National Guard,” Mazur said. “They most certainly will be invited to Cyber Fortress 4.0.”
Additional National Guard units include the Maryland National Guard’s 275th and 276th Cyber Operations Squadron and the New York National Guard’s 173rd Cyber Protection Team. Marines Corps Reserve personnel based in Louisiana and elements of the U.S. Coast Guard also participated.
State agency partners included the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia State Police, the VSP Fusion Center, Virginia Department of Health, representatives from six different county water authorities as well as Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute.
Private sector partners included multiple water utilities, Verizon, Resilient Energy Infrastructure and Booze Allen Hamilton.
Federal partners included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Army Research Labs, Idaho National Labs, Argonne National Lab and Muscatatuck Training Center.