Virtualized systems and simulated critical infrastructures were defended together with IT experts from the Austrian Armed Forces. The NATO-accredited Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in the Estonian capital Tallin hosted the multi-day exercise.

High intensity cyber defense

Together with the Republic of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany took part in the exercise as “Blue Team 04”. Based in Vienna, Munich and Euskirchen, the international and cross-agency team defended critical civil and military infrastructure against cyber attacks in and from cyberspace: hydroelectric power plants, power supply, satellite communications, 5G radio networks, research facilities.

These cyber attacks were carried out at high frequency and with increasing intensity by the CCDCOE, which includes member states and partner nations of the North Atlantic Alliance, but also commercial companies, research institutions and think tanks.

The “Blue Team 04” consisted of 44 participants from a total of eight Bundeswehr departments and 13 experts from six authorities. 28 participants from the Austrian Armed Forces joined in from Vienna; Six partner companies took part with 12 people.

In a fictional scenario, a total of 24 different blue teams hardened and defended around 5,500 virtualized systems against more than 8,000 attacks from Tallinn. Securing complex IT systems posed additional challenges. The participating teams also had to ensure effective reporting, master forensic and legal tasks while also ensuring press and public relations work and responding to information warfare events.

Be prepared for future challenges

After more than a day of continuous cyber attacks and after evaluating the performances of all teams, the Finnish Blue Team emerged as the best team in all categories, closely followed by the Lithuanian-Polish team and the Estonian team. The Austrian-German team took seventh place, once again proving themselves among the top ten best cyber defenders in the world.

Colonel Marco Krempel, head of the Cyber ​​Security Operations Center at the Bundeswehr Cyber ​​Security Center in Euskirchen, emphasizes the importance of this extremely realistic exercise: “We were repeatedly challenged by new scenarios and had to deal with new processes and technologies. Exercises like these bring the Bundeswehr forward. We must be prepared for comparable challenges from cyberspace.”

“Locked Shields” should also make an important contribution to this in the coming year, as the eleventh edition of this exercise is currently planned for April 2023.

Source: Press and Information Center Cyber ​​and Information Space (CIR)


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