The Finnish Defence Forces participated in exercise Cyber Coalition 2024 (CC24) organized by NATO from 29 November to 5 December. Cyber Coalition is the flagship of NATO’s cyber exercises and one of the world’s largest annual cyber exercises. The command and cyber range organization of the exercise was in Tallinn, but the majority of the forces involved participated remotely from their own operating areas. The exercise involved over 1 000 cyber defenders from 27 NATO member states and six partner countries.
International cooperation is part of national cyber defence; cyber threats often cross-national borders. Cooperation is conducted and rehearsed both under NATO leadership and directly among nations. Cyber Coalition 2024 was based on challenging and realistic scenarios that helped the participants get prepared for real-life cyber challenges. The exercise enhanced the ability to detect, counter and respond to various kinds of cyber threats. Generation of shared cyber awareness and sharing of information in the cyber operating environment were also rehearsed.
Participation in Cyber Coalition 2024 strengthened the cyber defence cooperation conducted between Finland and NATO. Cyber defence is part of the Alliance’s collective defence, which, in turn, is one of NATO’s core tasks. Sharing real-time cyber threat information among allies helps to identify the threat factors responsible and to respond to them as required – collectively, if necessary.
Key national cyber security players participating in the exercise
Finland participated in the exercise with staff from the administrative branches of the Defence Forces, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Transport and Communications and Ministry of the Interior. Finland’s participation in the exercise was led by the Defence Forces. The training audience operating in Finland was under the leadership of the Finnish Defence Forces C5 Agency FDFC5A.
The President of the Republic of Finland Alexander Stubb and the Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, General Janne Jaakkola familiarized themselves with exercise Cyber Coalition 2024 and inspected the training audience operating in Finland on 3 December in Jyväskylä.
- The CC24 provides a good opportunity to rehearse and develop international and national information sharing and collaboration associated with the cyber domain. Another aim involved developing both the Defence Forces’ and other authorities’ shared situation awareness in matters involving the cyber domain. The exercise resulted in improved competence, but the constantly changing cyber operating environment and the phenomena involved guarantee that we will have work cut out for us in the future as well, says the Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces C5 Agency’s Cyber Division, Lieutenant Colonel Tommi Laari.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s National Cyber Security Centre participated, starting from the planning stage, in the Defence Forces’ part of NATO’s Cyber Coalition.
- When civilian and military authorities train together, any challenges that might come up can be identified and responded to collectively and rapidly, says Samuel Bergström, Director of the National Cyber Security Centre’s incident response department.
- Traficom occupies a central role in securing critical infrastructure, and it is responsible for maintaining national cyber awareness. Common cyber exercises provide authorities with a secure platform to assess and develop procedures in challenging crisis and disturbance situations and in measures to recover from them.
