McAfee, Inc. , the leading dedicated security technology company, today announced that it participated in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cyber Storm Exercise — the federal government’s first national full scale exercise to assess preparedness capabilities in response to a cyber incident of national significance. Cyber Storm exercised prevention and response capabilities across the private sector as well as international, federal and state governments.

Cyber Storm simulated a sophisticated cyber attack scenario in which the attacks were pre-scripted and executed in a closed and secure environment to simulate realism for the participants. The cyber attacks included disrupting elements of the energy and transportation infrastructure and also targeted federal, state and international governments with the intent of disrupting government operations and degrading public confidence.

“Defending the nation’s critical infrastructure is a vital task,” said Jimmy Kuo, research fellow, McAfee AVERT Labs. “We are pleased that we were able to assist DHS in this endeavor. We will review the lessons learned through this exercise to better prepare in the event of a national cyber incident.

Cyber Storm is intended to provide an assessment of communications, coordination and partnerships across critical infrastructure sectors. Participants included members of the public sector, both federal and state agencies; the private sector including IT, telecommunications, energy and transportations companies; and international government partners. The participants provided additional support staff to assist in the plan and control of the exercise to ensure that it met their organizations’ training needs and supported the interests of their constituents.