Barack Obama and David Cameron Are Going to Play a Cyber Attack War Game

MI5 and the FBI will team up in a series of practice runs to combat cyber attacks, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Thursday during a two-day visit to the White House.

The two leaders will practice opening lines of communication in a series of war games staging potential global threats, beginning with a simulated attack on the Bank of England and Wall Street to take place later this year. It will be followed by tests on infrastructure.

Cameron tells the BBC that he wants to work with Obama on getting companies like Google and Facebook to cooperate with their governments when they need to see encrypted messages — a move that’s likely to be a red flag for privacy advocates.

“We need to work with these big companies,” Cameron said, “to make sure that we can keep people safe.”

[BBC]