Effective teams foster strong collaboration between their strategic decision-makers and technicians which helps them better address all elements of a large-scale cyber attack, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence said.

Head of the four-day annual exercise Carry Kangur said: "There has been a noticeable jump in quality, which was impressive."

Each of the 24 participating teams could be regarded as winners as they will likely have gained valuable and relevant training experience, he added.

"I know many people want to know who comes out on top. Even though scoring is a big part of the exercise, for us, it is more important to see participants adding new partners, members, and nations into their teams. It might sound like a cliché, but everybody is a winner at Locked Shields," he said in a statement.

Organizers also said this year's event was "the most competitive exercise yet" with over 3,000 participants.

"The fact that more and more nations are joining shows the quality and value of Locked Shields. Thanks to our partners, we can offer the training audiences new technical challenges and new avenues to explore. Learning to tackle new opposition, adapt, and collaborate are the main aims of Locked Shields," said NATO CCDCOE center director Mart Noorma.

Locked Shields is an annual NATO CCDCOE's cyber defence exercise designed to test and improve the preparedness of member nations and partners against large-scale cyber attacks.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!