(Article by Daniel_G republished from WeLoveTrump.com)
The exercise was the first of its kind around the world and tested the country’s capability of managing a new strain.
As jns explains:
The drill will test the country’s ability to coordinate and manage things like local/regional lockdowns, monitoring and oversight of the new variant, including vaccine testing, providing economic support for the population and ensuring that the education system can successfully adjust.“The State of Israel is in an excellent situation. We beat the fourth wave and we are on our way to exiting the Delta variant,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to the statement.
“At the same time, however, we are always looking ahead and preparing for the continuation of the campaign. We are not ‘closing up shop.’ Neither are we closing down the management systems and the order of battle against the virus. On the contrary, we are continuing to hold drills and to challenge ourselves,” he added.
With the situation in much of the rest of the world worsening with respect to the pandemic, said Bennett, “Israel is safe and protected.” But, he added, “to maintain this and safeguard the continuity of normal life, we must continue to closely monitor the situation and prepare for any scenario.”
The omicron variant was ‘discovered’ in South Africa around two weeks after Israel conducted the war game simulation.
https://twitter.com/AlyssaMary03/status/1468136066397974532
Israel recently led another “war game” simulation that involved 10 countries.
But this tabletop exercise simulated a major cyber attack on the global financial system to analyze its impacts on global foreign exchange and international markets.
In conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the exercise meant to ensure global cooperation to the digital attack.
https://twitter.com/ReutersBiz/status/1468953715583369216
https://twitter.com/gdhint/status/1468966166353776651
https://twitter.com/SleeperCandidat/status/1468977789617512450
Reuters reported:
The simulated “war game”, as Israel’s Finance Ministry called it and planned over the past year, evolved over 10 days, with sensitive data emerging on the Dark Web. The simulation also used fake news reports that in the scenario caused chaos in global markets and a run on banks.The simulation — likely caused by what officials called “sophisticated” players — featured several types of attacks that impacted global foreign exchange and bond markets, liquidity, integrity of data and transactions between importers and exporters.
“These events are creating havoc in the financial markets,” said a narrator of a film shown to the participants as part of the simulation and seen by Reuters.
Israeli government officials said that such threats are possible in the wake of the many high-profile cyberattacks on large companies, and that the only way to contain any damage is through global cooperation since current cyber security is not always strong enough.
“Attackers are 10 steps ahead of the defender,” Micha Weis, financial cyber manager at Israel’s Finance Ministry, told Reuters.
Participants in the initiative, called “Collective Strength”, included treasury officials from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Thailand, as well as representatives from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements.
The narrator of the film in the simulation said governments were under pressure to clarify the impact of the attack, which was paralysing the global financial system.
“The banks are appealing for emergency liquidity assistance in a multitude of currencies to put a halt to the chaos as counterparties withdraw their funds and limit access to liquidity, leaving the banks in disarray and ruin,” the narrator said.
The participants discussed multilateral policies to respond to the crisis, including a coordinated bank holiday, debt repayment grace periods, SWAP/REPO agreements and coordinated delinking from major currencies.
Rahav Shalom-Revivo, head of Israel’s financial cyber engagements, said international collaboration between finance ministries and international organizations “is key for the resilience of the financial eco-system.”
The simulated digital attack is a reminder of the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Polygon.
Klaus Schwab has made prior warnings that COVID-19 would pale in comparison to a cyber attack.
From the WEF:
What is Cyber Polygon?
Cyber Polygon is a unique cybersecurity event that combines the world’s largest technical exercise for corporate teams and an online conference featuring senior officials from international organisations and leading corporations.
Cyber Polygon 2021
Leaders of global organisations and state representatives met at the online conference to analyse the current trends and risks posed by increased interconnectivity. One of the talking points was the resilience of digital ecosystems and the promotion of a safe digital future by means of mutual efforts, justice, and equality. More than 7 million people from 78 countries tuned in to watch the Cyber Polygon online conference.
The technical training was designed for the participants to exercise their skills in repelling a massive supply chain attack on a business-critical system in real time, followed by a full-scale investigation of the incident. A total of 200 organisations from 48 countries took part in the technical training. Cybersecurity and digital sustainability are gainingmomentum across all continents, nations and trades, and even traditional industries now recognize cybersecurity as their strategic priority and seek to develop their cyber defence competencies.
The event also incorporated an expert track for field professionals which featured insightful presentations by cybersecurity experts. This track addressed an array of current cyber risks and threats, as well as the key aspects of developing a mature cybersecurity posture.
https://youtu.be/tSuCuoQxI20
Read more at: WeLoveTrump.com