Stuxnet and U.S. Incident Response

Read the article titled “When Stuxnet Hit the Homeland: Government Response to the Rescue,” from ABC News, located at http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/06/when-stuxnet-hit-the-homeland-government-response-to-the-rescue/ and consider this threat in terms of incident response and recovery procedures.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

1. Explain the role of US-CERT in protecting the nation’s industrial systems and analyze its efforts in relation to preparedness and incident and recovery management. 
2. Discuss the efforts of ICS-CERT specifically to the Stuxnet threat and examine its incident response efforts to mitigate this risk against U.S. industrial systems.
3. With the sophistication of the primary sites of industrial system implementations, determine whether or not alternate sites (e.g., hot site) are feasible for organizations that utilize ICS technologies. Provide a rationale.
4. Explain the high-level planning needed for an industrial systems organization that utilizes ICS technologies to prepare for attacks from cyber threats such as Stuxnet. 
5. Use at least four (4) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources. 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Summarize the various types of disasters, response and recovery methods.
• Describe detection and decision-making capabilities in incident response.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in disaster recovery.
• Write clearly and concisely about disaster recovery topics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions