The following news updates are for the T-REX 2021 TRAINING EXERCISE ONLY, and is not to be relayed as real-world news and information.
It’s realistic, but it’s not ‘real’. …as of the date posted.
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FRIDAY AmRRON News Network — 06 August 2021 @1740 UTC
Senior Director of CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency), Joe Sass, announced that the
‘Time Bomb’ malware virus is far worse than first thought. It is expected to be infected in critical infrastructure
systems around the world. Once released, it will spread faster than any computer virus ever known. Based on
recommendations by the World Economic Forum, the ongoing emergency cyber summit involving world leaders and
cyber experts has concluded that immediate action must be taken to ‘quarantine all internet connected devices’ for a
limited time period, to help “flatten the curve.”
CISA is working with private industry, including major tech, which has stated they’re willing to fully cooperate in
order to stop the spread of the computer virus, which is described as having “far worse and faster spreading effects
than Covid-19.”
World leaders, through their respective cyber security agencies, are sending public service messages to expect all
internet-based systems, servers, and services to begin pulling their systems off line as soon as today, Friday, Aug. 6.
Critics warn that the public is not prepared to be without electricity, communications, or access to food, water, or
currency without more time to prepare.
CISA stated that if these actions are not taken right now, then the world will be without power, internet, transportation,
food, communications, or an economy for weeks or months if we don’t take these unprecedented measures now.
“This is a unique situation in which we are all going to have to make sacrifices. It’s temporary.” Sass stated. “It’s only
for 72 hours. That’s not too much to ask when there’s so much at stake. We’re all in this together.”
No definitive timeline has been given when systems are expected to begin going off line, or when they can expect to return.
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FRIDAY AmRRON News Network — 06 August 2021 @14:45 UTC
Early this morning, several nuclear power facilities throughout the U.S. report cyber-attacks on their
PLC’s and resultant reactor “scrams”. These attacks were accompanied by widespread internet outages and
cell phone service lost in several regions of the country.
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THURSDAY AmRRON News Network — 05 August 2021 @15:45 UTC
- Disruptions to railroad operators’ computer systems have disabled the national rail industry.
Operators have assigned personnel to manually operate switches along key rail lines but trains
running these routes are forced to move at a much slower pace for safety purposes. - SEC announcement of failure to restore all brokerage accounts and they are working to resolve
the problem but immediate resolution is not likely and make require a shutdown of financial activity
on the NYSE and other commodity exchanges. World financial exchanges react to the announcement
with record losses. Currency exchanges are fluctuating and the dollar is down by 40%. - ATMs are running out of cash across the nation, while officials and pundits are urging calm, assuring
the public that this is only temporary, urging them not to take all of their cash out of the banks.
Many banks limiting withdrawals to $500, resulting in sporadic incidents of assault and destruction
of property at banks as citizens become irate. - World Leader Cybersecurity Summit concluded yesterday with several findings and recommended courses of action.
- Infection of malicious time delay ‘worms’ discovered to be embedded in key infrastructure systems around the world.
- Cyber security professionals fear they are only aware of a fraction of the true number of malware ‘time bombs’.
- World Economic Forum (WEF) share findings and recommendations based on previous similar cyber attack modeling:
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- Will be far worse effects than Covid-19 — references to this being a ‘cyber pandemic’
- Cyber ‘time bomb’ are expected to be released on Saturday, August 7th, if world leaders fail to deposit
$1 Trillion dollars into a crypto currency account by the deadline. - Lessons drawn from world Covid response indicate the world waited too long to act, to stop the spread of Covid
- Recommend a temporary ten-day global ‘quarantine’ of all internet connected devices to stop the spread.
- Messaging campaign for voluntary internet quarantine, soliciting cooperations from major world internet servers
and big tech, to disconnect their servers and their customers from the internet, until a long term solution (a “sort
of cyber vaccine”) can be developed. - Cyber Summit concludes by recommending immediate action, and a global internet shutdown no later than
Friday night, Midnight UTC, for a minimum of 72 hours, to ensure prevention of the spread of the virus.
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AmRRON News Network — 04 August 2021 @18:30 UTC
Savannah River Nuclear Site plant has a reactor “scram” as a result of a failed PLC and false data.
They expect to be operational again within 48 hours. AEP power plants remain at reduced power output.
Several South Eastern cities are having intermittent internet outages and Cell phone companies have announced
that several of their regional hubs have been hit by a cyber virus.
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AmRRON News Network — 04 August 2021 @13:55 UTC
Reports of several AEP power plants have experienced turbine failures due to PLC problems. They are rectifying
the problem but will have to shut down operations for 72 hours. Expected brownouts and intermittent power outages are
expected through the Mid-Atlantic states to include Metropolitan Washington D.C. and Baltimore areas.
AmRRON News Network — 04 August 2021 @08:40 UTC
SEC announcement – NYSE and Chicago mercantile will delay opening for 2 hours to address cyber security measures.
Reports of several brokerages are locked out of some of their accounts and are aggressively pursuing a solution.
They urge clients to remain calm and not try and access their accounts until they announce a fix. Many ATM’s remain
inaccessible.
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AmRRON News Network — 03 August 2021 @21:40 UTC
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning advising all commercial and public internet users to be vigilant for possible cyber intrusion into commercial cyber controllers, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), and internet servers. All commercial and public internet users are advised to review the following document:
https://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/content/overview-cyber-vulnerabilities
World Leaders calling for an emergency Cyber Security Summit, to take place sometime Wednesday afternoon, Eastern Time, US.
World Economic Forum (WEF) advisors have been summoned to facilitate the summit.
WEF will present their findings from recent cyber attack modeling, and will facilitate the formation of an Exploratory Committee to develop and review options for mitigation and counter-measures.
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