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.