Although the main focus of the exercise remains technical, a strategic track was introduced this year, to provide a decision making exercise for policy officers and legal advisors. In addition to business IT environments, several specialized IT systems were introduced in Locked Shields in 2017, reflecting the current threat landscape.
The annual Locked Shields exercise has been organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCD COE) since 2010. Each year, teams are put under intense pressure to maintain the networks and services of a fictional country. This includes handling and reporting incidents, solving forensic challenges, and responding to legal and strategic communications and scenario injections by the referee team.
Locked Shields 2017 is organized in cooperation with the Estonian Defence Forces, the Finnish Defence Forces, the Swedish Defence University, the British Joint Army, the United States European Command, Air Operations COE and Tallinn University of Technology. More than a dozen industry partners from many countries participated in the exercise.
The NATO CCD COE is a community of nations providing a 360-degree look at cyber defence, with expertise in the areas of technology, strategy, operations and law. The Tallinn-based international military organisation focuses on interdisciplinary applied research, consultations, training and exercises in cyber security. Sponsoring Nations are Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Contributing Participants are Austria and Finland, and Sweden has applied for this status.
Agu Ets
