One of the real fears of the 21st century for business and governments alike is the potential cyber attacks that could cripple everything. While some people believe that this kind of cyber attack is a story that is straight from Hollywood, there are plenty of people in Washington and in New York City who believe that the cyber attack is a very real and very dangerous threat. There are plenty of security companies who have been offering preparation and defense against the cyber attacks that they know how to deal with. The real problem is the cyber attack that is brand new.

Wall Street is just one of the entities that are planning drills in order to prepare for the day when a cyber attack does real damage. The SEC (News - Alert) is teaming up with the Financial Markets Association in a July 18 simulated cyber attack that will affect around 50 different financial firms.The excercise has been dubbed Quantum (News - Alert) Dawn 2. This is actually a sequel to an excercise that was carried out in 2011 and will again have the cooperation of the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Homeland Security.

"We've been under attack as a sector for the last nine months," Karl Schimmeck, the Financial Market’s Association vice president of financial services operations said in a recent statement. "We know this is real. We know things are possible."

Those taking part in this drill haven’t been clear about what kind of attacks Quantum Dawn 2 will include, but it seems likely that those attacks will be more extreme than the DOS attacks that financial companies have been undergoing the last couple of months. The FMA (News - Alert) will be overseeing this particular drill and said that the simulation was scheduled to begin last week but was moved back to July 18 so that more firms could participate.