Today, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) kicked off exercise Crossed Swords 2024 in Tallinn, Estonia, bringing together participants from 40 nations, including both NATO and non-NATO member states. The exercise focuses on training cyber specialists to execute a full offensive cyber kill chain in a realistic and dynamic simulated crisis environment.
“The goal of the Crossed Swords exercise is to practice and experiment in a field that is highly relevant in today’s world,” stated Dr Mart Noorma, Director of NATO CCDCOE. “We are a defensive alliance by nature. In order to understand how our adversaries think we also need to master offensive cyber skills. Deterrence in cyberspace is complicated, but we continue doing our best to keep our nations safe.”
This year’s exercise is designed to train military command elements in the command and control of offensive cyberspace capabilities as well as support the development of other operational domain and tactical skills related to cyberspace, such as information operations. The exercise is integrated with a concurrent Special Forces exercise with the aim of strengthening collaboration between kinetic and cyber units within the context of multi-domain operations.
“Crossed Swords is a highly focused offensive cyber exercise that is open to all CCDCOE nations. This gives us access to global perspectives, methods, skills, and insights in a collaborative learning and training environment where we can all learn from each other and the similar cyber threats we all face,” commented Commander Jack Shis, Crossed Swords Exercise Director.
“In this iteration Crossed Swords is employing realistic technologies and attack methods, and focuses on key infrastructure and logistics systems that are critical to any military effort,” Shis added.
The scenario occurs in a fictitious setting where a friendly state Berylia is engaged in armed conflict against a hostile adversary Crimsonia.
The exercise benefits considerably from having academia and industry partners supporting the development of the exercise, offering hands-on integration of military and industry technologies and helping to closely mirror real world challenges. The exercise is organised by the CCDCOE in partnership with numerous partners, including M&W, Accenture, Conductrr, Rocket.chat, CrowdStrike, Splunk, Dragos, Telsy, Microsoft, Red Hat, SentinelOne, Stamus Networks, Startex Security, Clarified Security, National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory and others.
The exercise is conducted from the cyber innovation hub CR14 in Tallinn, Estonia.