SVK cyber defenders take part in world’s largest and most complex cyber security and defence exercise - Locked Shields 2021

The SVK National Team took part in the world’s largest and most complex cyber security and cyber defence exercise, codenamed Ex Locked Shields 2021. Organised under the aegis of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) based in Estonia's Tallinn, the exercise was conducted on 13-16 April 2021. The SVK team finished off with a score well above the average score of participating teams, i.e. in the top 1/3 of 22 Blue Teams under assessment.

The aim of the exercise was to protect and defend civilian and military IT systems and critical infrastructure systems. The exercise integrated technical and non-technical phases, with dominant focus on the technical one. As part of the scenarios, the Blue teams, representing the CCDCOE member nations and partners, protected and defended the infrastructure entrusted to them against active attacks from the Red Teams, formed of the organisers.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “Military Intelligence that coordinated the SVK National Team on Ex Locked Shields 2021 once again reconfirmed its quality and long-standing excellent achievements in the field of cyber security and cyber defence. Even amidst quality competition from Allied competitors participating in the exercise, they demonstrated that in this field Slovakia is in truly good, highly qualified and especially well-prepared hands,” before adding that “Ex Locked Shields 2021 contributed to strengthening collaboration at the national and NATO levels”.

While the technical phase was aimed at monitoring networks, analyzing malware, conducting forensic analysis and reporting incidents, the non-technical phase consisted of legal, media and analytical tasks. Both technical and non-technical phases were closely interlinked and the results of both were integrated into the strategic part of the exercise, under which individual teams also dealt with assigned issues at the strategic level.

Those represented in the SVK National Team on Ex Locked Shields 2021 were Military Intelligence (MI) officers, i.e. personnel of the SVK Cyber Defence Centre, members of the SVK Armed Forces, representatives of state establishments including from the Data Centre of the SVK Ministry of Finance, academic staffs from the General M. R. Štefánik Armed Forces Academy and from the Informatics Department at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University, and representatives of the private sector such as ESET, Microsoft and Bukovinský & Chlipala.

For more information on the exercise, go to the official CCDCOE website.