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At Facebook, zero-day exploits, backdoor code bring war games drill to life

arstechnica.com

51–52 of 52 posts

Re: At Facebook, zero-day exploits, backdoor code bring war games drill to life

#51
post #24
post #14

I'd be moderately pissed off if I got stuck in a drill for 24h+ without knowing it was a drill, unless it was a known thing that drills would be run routinely. There is stuff I'd do for "real" (missing one-off personal events, etc.) which I wouldn't do for training. I'd skip out on a wedding (well, I always do anyway), funeral, etc. for a real security issue, but would quit the next day if I had done so for training…

The article says that in an earlier test, "the organizers made an exception, however, when early in the drill, an employee said the magnitude of the intrusion he was investigating would require him to cancel a vacation that was scheduled to begin the following week. McGeehan pulled the employee aside and explained it was only a drill and then instructed him to keep that information private." I'd hazard a guess that t…

Companies have systems for requesting paid time off. It's not a willy-nilly thing one can surprise their coworkers with on a short notice.

Re: At Facebook, zero-day exploits, backdoor code bring war games drill to life

#52
Amazing story.

A little off-topic question - how do stories like this get reported (got picked-up by arstechnica)? This isn't some standard Press Release or entry in the companies' blog. Is it initiated by companies (FB in this case) themselves? Or is it the journalists constantly sniffing companies for such stories? It's something I've always been curious about coming across such stories. I am assuming there is standard PR practice for such things (for example I wonder how did that FBI e-mail snapshot got shared by arstechnica, despite the blurring and e-mail being ultimately set-up, there must be strict policies in terms of what to share and what not...) Someone please shed a light ~

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