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An international cyber defense exercise, Locked Shields, ended in the Estonian capital Tallinn Thursday evening with NATO's Blue Team receiving the first place among ten teams taking part.
NATO team wins cyber defense exercise in Estonia
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The two-day exercise aimed to test the defense skills of IT experts under real-life conditions and also practise working side-by-side with different nations, spokespeople for the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence said.
"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 Jaan Priisalu, leader of the White Team and director general of the Estonian Information System 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," he said.
"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," said Col. Artur Suzik, director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center 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 Locked Shields 2014."
At the end of the exercise, Jaan Priisalu was awarded the honorary title of senior fellow of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence for his outstanding contribution to the center's technical exercises since 2008 and for his continuous support for the center's activities.
The exercise was organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, the defense forces of Finland, the defense forces of Estonia, the Estonian Kuberkaitseliit (Cyber Defense League) and the Estonian Information System Authority, with substantial technical support provided by Cisco, Clarified Networks, Clarified Security and Bytelife.
The ten Blue Teams were from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Slovakia and NATO.