The Latvian team wins the first place in the largest NATO cyber defense exercises / Article

This year, during the “Locked Shields” exercise in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, more than 4,000 participants from 40 countries joined forces in a simulated environment to protect a country’s infrastructure. The exercise was organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center of Excellence. This year, the exercise simulated an attack on the critical infrastructure of a fictional country. The goal of each team was to respond accordingly to the threat and ensure that work continued in the fictional country, such as electricity or gas.

Last year, in these annual NATO exercises, the Latvian team took fourth place, but this year Latvian cyber guards showed the best result. The second place in the “Locked Shields 2024” exercise was won by the team made up of representatives of Finland and Poland, and the third place was won by the team of cyber defense specialists from Estonia and France.

The Latvian cyber guard team was formed by 120 members of the Cyber ​​Defense Unit of the National Guard together with approximately 80 representatives of Latvia’s critical infrastructure and approximately 30 employees of the NATO Communication and Information Agency.

Ronalds Mandelis, commander of the National Guard’s Cyber ​​Defense Unit, told the Latvian Radio program “Pēcpusdiena” that the core of the Latvian team was made up of Latvian specialists, but cyber defense experts from abroad were also recruited. “The training conditions also dictate that every year we have to choose a cooperation partner from NATO member states or NATO cooperation countries. And this year we had a very good cooperation with the NATO Communication and Information Agency,” said Mandelis.

The commander of the Cyber ​​Defense Unit of the National Guard stated that over the years these exercises have helped to learn from mistakes and continue to strengthen the team. The Cyber ​​Defense Unit of the National Guard has been participating in these exercises for 10 years.

“We took into account the mistakes we made last year, analyzed a lot what happened, what didn’t happen, what experts we should still attract. (..) The tenth year was really positive for us. We went for it, learned and a lot of strength and invested energy, it is only natural that we managed to get the honorable first place, because the work that has been invested in the preparation process is simply immeasurable,” said Mandelis.

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