MGE Participates in Dark Sky Exercise
MGE participated in May in the statewide cybersecurity and emergency response exercise known as Dark Sky, involving the National Guard, State of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Emergency Management, local government and other utilities. The three-day drill took partners through what an "attack day" might look like—from collaboration through recovery.
MGE builds cyber range
Partners in the Dark Sky exercise toured MGE's Cyber Range, a virtual environment that served as one of the venues to help simulate a cyberattack.
Simulating a cyberattack is an effective way to help prepare for and safeguard against such an incident. As a part of its leadership role in Dark Sky, MGE developed a state-of-the-art cyber facility at its Madison headquarters. The virtual environment is an isolated computer system.
Dozens of employees took part in Dark Sky, some facilitating the exercise while others worked to protect MGE's IT infrastructure from virtual "attacks" initiated by members of the Wisconsin National Guard Cyber Unit. Their job was to detect the threats, figure out where they originated and defend against them.
"Safety and security are top priorities. This multiagency exercise builds upon ongoing efforts to work together to safeguard our grid, our communities, our state from cyber threats," said Jeff Keebler, MGE President and CEO. "The Dark Sky scenario enables all of the partners to simulate our coordinated response in a safe and repeatable way, which is an effective tool to prepare for an actual incident."
Dark Sky involved several hundred people from across the state participating in nearly 20 venues.