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President Ilves acquainted himself in Tallinn with the most extensive real-time network defence cyber exercise in the world

President Ilves acquainted himself in Tallinn with the most extensive real-time network defence cyber exercise in the world © Locked Shields 2016

21.04.2016

Today, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves acquainted himself with the most extensive real-time technical network defence cyber exercise, "Locked Shields 2016", which is organised by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence; 550 participants from 19 countries were engaged and used technologies, computer networks and attacks methods that mimic reality as closely as possible.

"Co-operation between various countries and NATO structures is a key to our success when we need to face cyber threats," said President Ilves, in acknowledging the participants of the exercise. "Although the scenario of the exercise is imaginary, there is nothing imaginary about the cyber threats that we face every day. Our readiness and capability to fend off these threats and protect our networks and infrastructure in the event of attacks must also be real."

"Trust between people must be built on a solid foundation. Co-operation between the cyber defence experts of our allies, sharing contacts and building trust are established within the framework of such exercises. In so doing, we strive towards being ever more capable of defending ourselves in the event of a real attack against NATO – as Estonia experienced in spring 2007," said the Head of State.

According to the "Locked Shields" scenario, teams that take part in the exercise will defend the computer networks and information systems of a fictional country. The goal is to give a realistic overview of the possible scope of influence of cyber incidents and the level of the complexity of measures required to handles such incidents. A further goal is to develop the capability required to defend real countries and critical information systems in real life situations. The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence has organised the "Locked Shields" exercise since 2010. You can find more specific information about the exercise from their website at https://ccdcoe.org/locked-shields-2016.html.


NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn is a NATO-accredited international centre of excellence, think tank and training facility. The Centre was established in 2008 and has since grown into an important source for cyber defence knowledge for both NATO and its allies, as it focuses on applied research, analyses, distribution of information and trainings and exercises in the sphere of cyber defence. All members of NATO are welcome to join the Cyber Defence Centre. The sponsor states of the Centre are Estonia, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary, the USA and the United Kingdom. Austria and Finland have joined as partner states. The Centre is funded and manned by the joined countries and it does not form a part of NATO's military structure.


Office of the President
Public Relations Department