NATO Team Wins the Locked Shields Cyber Defence Exercise

International Cyber Defence Exercise Locked Shields ended yesterday evening with NATO’s Blue Team receiving the first place among the ten teams participating. The two-day exercise aimed to test the defence skills of IT experts under real-life conditions and also practise working side-by-side with different nations.

“It is good to see that the Blue Teams have really prepared well for this year’s exercise and the opposing team had to work a lot harder to keep the difficulty level high for the defenders,” said Mr Jaan Priisalu, White Team leader and Director General of the Estonian Information Systems' Authority. “This is a highly positive sign because it shows that the teams take the exercise very seriously and also that they are learning from the best practises and lessons from previous years.”

“The exercise has come a long way since the first event in 2008 and the fact that the teams are improving shows that the exercises do what they were developed for, namely train the IT specialists to work together and enhance their skills,” noted Colonel Artur Suzik, Director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. “I firmly believe that we owe the success of the exercise to our partners without whom this event could not take place and we are hoping to cooperate with all of them again for the Locked Shields 2014.”

In the end of the exercise Mr Jaan Priisalu received the honorary title of a Senior Fellow of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence for his outstanding contribution to the Centre’s technical exercises since 2008 and for his continuous support to Centre’s activities. 

The exercise was organised by NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Finnish Defence Forces, Estonian Defence Forces, Estonian Cyber Defence League and Estonian Information Systems' Authority. Great technical support was received from Cisco, Clarified Networks, Clarified Security and Bytelife.

The ten Blue Teams were from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Slovakia and NATO. Exercise control was located on the premises of NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.

NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is an International Military Organisation located in Tallinn, Estonia. It is not an operational centre and does not fall within the NATO command structure; it is guided and financed by the nations participating in its work. Centre’s mission is to enhance the capability, cooperation and information sharing among NATO, its member nations and partners in cyber defence by virtue of education, research and development, lessons learned and consultation.