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In Simulation, Government Reels From Cybershock – CQ Homeland Security

This time, it really was a killer app.

Former members of the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations drew some real-life conclusions from a massive, make-believe cyber-attack Tuesday.

Dubbed “Cyber ShockWave,” the simulation turned 10 former administration officials and lawmakers into members of the president’s national security staff for a day and thrust them into the middle of a rapidly worsening crisis — a massive, coordinated cyber-attack on the nation’s critical infrastructure that left the telecommunications and electrical power sectors in shambles.

Among the panel’s recommendations for the Obama administration and Congress: The United States should put legal and protective measures in place and educate the public and industry about the need for computer security, before a crisis forces the administration to take hasty actions that could override civil liberties and thrust the private sector into litigation.