NATO Allies conduct largest cyber exercise to enhance joint cyber capabilities

Europe, News December 4, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

NATO Allies and partners conducted ‘Cyber Coalition’ exercise to train together and protect critical infrastructure and networks against realistic and complex cyber threats and attacks. NATO’s flagship exercise took place in Tallinn, Estonia from November 27 to December 1, 2023.

More than 1,300 cyber defenders from 28 NATO states and 7 partner countries, and the European Union took part in one of the largest cyber exercises. Several industry and academia representatives also joined the exercise, while experts from partner countries took part virtually in the Exercise Cyber Coalition.

NATO Allies including, Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Türkyie, the United Kingdom, and the United States participated in the cyber exercise.

The NATO Alliance partner countries, Georgia, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine also joined the exercise.

Exercise Director Commander Charles Elliott of the United States Navy, “Cyber Coalition is unique because it is the only cyber exercise in NATO that is not a competition. We all work together as a family of cyber defenders.”

Strengthening Allied cooperation & cyber resilience!
The largest #NATO’s cyber defence exercise #CyberCoalition:
🤝170 troops on-site in 🇪🇪 at #CR14 + more than 1,300 cyber defenders across the Alliance & Partner Nations.
ℹ️https://t.co/1gAsm82jCk #WeAreNATO #CC23 pic.twitter.com/QTM4CKKH9q
— NATO ACT (@NATO_ACT) December 1, 2023

U.S. Navy Commander Elliott added, “This collaboration is what makes us stronger and more resilient to cyber threats. This year, the cooperation between all participants has been exceptional.”

The cyber defense exercise was aimed at enhancing NATO Allies’ and partners’ resilience to cyber threats and improving the cyber defenders’ capabilities to conduct operations together.

According to the NATO statement, “The Cyber Coalition 2023 scenario is based on real-life cyber challenges, including attacks on critical infrastructure such as electrical substations, energy grids, and water treatment plants, as well as the disruption of NATO and Allied assets while in operations.”

Cyber Coalition Exercise — *^{Cyber defense experts at NATO’s flagship exercise Cyber Coalition 2023. (Image Credit: NATO/Paolo Giordano)}*

The NATO statement highlighted that “During Cyber Coalition 23, NATO’s Allied Command Transformation spearheaded three experimentations to improve cyber awareness, information sharing, and automated data exploitation, and enhance the protection of military missions against cyber-attacks.”

The NATO statement added that this year’s exercise offered a “perfect venue for cyberspace experimentation, supporting NATO’s capability development and transformation in the cyber domain.”