The Armed Forces team won the world’s largest cybersecurity exercise

This year, Sweden participated with Iceland because Iceland had not participated before. The purpose of Locked Shields 2023 from the Swedish side was to train participants from the financial sector and the electronic communications sector to deal individually and collectively with a larger real-world cybersecurity event. Even from Iceland, the participants came primarily from the same sectors. The exercises are designed in a way that they can happen in their daily lives.

The Armed Forces were responsible for all practical aspects of the exercise, which was conducted at the Command Regiment in Enkoping. In addition, the Swedish Armed Forces participated in running the exercise on site in Tallinn, Estonia.

Major General Johan Beccari, who is in charge of cyber defence, visited the exercises on Thursday.

– It was interesting to visit such a large cyber security exercise and see how it is done. Participants were engaged and focused. He says it’s impressive to see how a temporarily assembled team can perform at this level.

The Armed Forces considers it important that the full defense actors are trained in realistic cyber security exercises, thus inviting different sectors to Locked Shields in different years.
This type of cybersecurity exercise is a valuable way to increase the capacity to be large-scale, says Johan Beccari.

The Swedish Armed Forces thanks everyone who participated in the Icelandic Swedish national team for a great performance.
– It’s great fun! It’s just a matter of congratulations to everyone involved, says Johan Beccari.

Locked Shields is the world’s largest cybersecurity exercise, and this year it brought together more than 3,000 participants from all over the world. The exercise is organized annually by the NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Tallinn. The international exercise is both technical and strategic. The exercise consists of operationally complex and realistic sub-moments.