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Finnish Defence Forces Participate in Locked Shields 2018 Cyber Defence Exercise

Defence Forces C5 Agency
Publication date 20.4.2018 9.59
Press release

The Finnish Defence Forces will participate in the international cyber defence exercise Locked Shields 2018 (LS18) from 23-27 April 2018.

The exercise is organised and led by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE).Exercise command organisation is located in Estonia and exercise troops in their own countries with online access. The Finnish Defence Forces will participate in the exercise with two defending teams and will assign personnel for tasks in the exercise command organisation in Tallinn.

LS18 is the world`s largest and most complex international live-fire cyber defence exercise

Locked Shields is the world’s largest live-fire"Blue Team vs Red Team" cyber defence exercise. The task of the defenders, the Blue Team, is to protect and defend their information management systems against cyber-attacks in the exercise environment. Services to be defended include critical infrastructure such as electricity distribution, 4G public safety network, but also regular ICT services of organisations. The Blue Teams try to detect cyber security incidents, evaluate their effects and execute the necessary countermeasures to repel the attacks.

Joint Finnish-Swedish exercise detachment

The personnel of the Finnish Defence Forces and Swedish Armed Forces form a joint exercise detachment and are together responsible for the cyber threats portrayed in the exercise. The other exercise team is a national one and consists of reservists and National Defence Training Association course participants who voluntarily take part in the exercise. The voluntary refresher training exercise is organised in cooperation with the National Defence Training Association of Finland.

The goal of the exercise is to develop the participating teams' know-how in detecting, preventing and reporting cyber-attacks. A national goal is to develop the know-how of Finnish Defence Forces personnel and reservists in repelling cyber threats as well as to develop cooperation with Sweden.

The Finnish Ministry of Defence has approved the Locked Shields exercise as part of the Finnish Defence Forces’ International Exercise Activities for 2018.

Further information: Commander of the Finnish department, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kantola +358299 566 800.

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