NATO’s Flagship Cyber Exercise Concludes In Estonia
From 27 November to 1 December, Allied and partner cyber defenders tested their ability to protect networks and critical infrastructure against realistic and complex cyber threats and attacks.
Exercise Cyber Coalition is NATO’s flagship cyber exercise and one of the largest in the world. This year’s edition brought together more than 1,300 cyber defenders from 28 NATO Allies and 7 partner countries, as well as the European Union and participants from industry and academia. This year’s exercise took place in Tallinn, Estonia, as well as remotely, in national capitals and other locations.
“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. This collaboration is what makes us stronger and more resilient to cyber threats. This year, the cooperation between all participants has been exceptional” said Commander Charles Elliott (US Navy), Exercise Director.
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. The aim is to enhance NATO’s, Allies’ and partners’ resilience to cyber threats and their ability to conduct cyber operations together.
Cyber Coalition is also a perfect venue for cyberspace experimentation, supporting NATO’s capability development and transformation in the cyber domain. 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 28 participating Allies were: 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, United Kingdom, United States.
The 7 participating NATO partner countries were: Georgia, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine