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D.2 Cyber Attack A cyber attack is an incident whereby an intruder or a group of individuals is either attempting or actively disrupting the operations of government or private sector networks, systems, or any other electronically -based infrastructure. Cyber attacks may take a variety of forms and vary in the scale of their impact. Small attacks may come in the form of isolated attacks from software called malware (malicious software, such as computer viruses) against a few systems or networks. Larger incidents represent mass coordinated attacks against multiple networks, systems, or pieces of municipal infrastructure. Situation and Assumptions Large-scale Cyber attacks have the potential to cause mass failure of key pieces of government or private sector systems such as power, water, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, transportation, or public safety. Such attacks may affect financial security, overall well-being, and potentially the health and safety of community members. Cyber attacks can result in physical damage (for example, a malicious command to a piece of infrastructure may cause it to operate in a manner it was not designed for, damaging the infrastructure). For the purposes of Redwood City's response, the likely primary systems affected by a hypothetical cyber attack are transportation and water. Cyber attacks on internal computer networks, such as payroll systems or the City's website, may also cause significant hardship. Utilities such as telecommunications, power, and natural gas represent potential secondary targets as they are not managed by the City government. It should be assumed that all infrastructure and systems could potentially be subject to cyber attacks. The rapid identification, containment, and dispatching of cyber attacks are critical for maintaining public safety in Redwood City. Response efforts to large-scale attacks on municipal infrastructure, services, or networks should be coordinated and executed by the City. Secure and reliable networks of communication are needed to ensure that public entities can facilitate appropriate response efforts. No single entity should act unilaterally to address a cyber attack event and cooperation and sharing of information is essential to ensure response efforts are executed quickly and safely. It is essential to acknowledge that cyber attack events are subject to happen at any time with no warning and each one is unique in scale. Thus, responders need to be flexible in their administration of the response plan. A cyber attack event may cause one or more of the following direct impacts on Redwood City: • Traffic congestion due to disabled traffic signals • Intermittent or nonoperational water or wastewater services • Denial of service to residents attempting to access or use municipal online resources or services • Hampered efforts by local emergency services to respond to resident calls • Disruptions to city employees attempting to complete public service requests or access or use municipal networks, databases, or computers M