The 2018 Locked Shields exercise was organized by NATO's Center of Excellence for Cyber Defense (CCDCOE - NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence) in Tallinn, Estonia.
With more than 1000 experts from around 30 different countries and more than 2500 simulated virtual attacks, Locked Shields is an exercise that aims to train experts in the field of security of national computer systems through a series of simulations of cyber attacks on computer networks of a military base: attacks on remotely piloted aircraft, the electrical system, the command and control system and other operational infrastructures essential for the survival of a military base.
The exercise, which is held annually, took place from 23 to 27 April. Italy participated with a team of computer scientists from the Armed Forces who, during the exercise, had the opportunity to collaborate with sector experts from all participating countries, research institutes, universities and industry, interacting with all the actors who, in the event of a real attack, would be called upon to operate to counter the cyber threat.
In recent years, advanced technologies have made the world increasingly digitized and inter-connected, generating at the same time a series of cyber threats that exploit the bugs in software that regulate, now, a multitude of human activities.
The Defense sector has always drawn on the most advanced technologies and about 60% of the military activities of a modern nation have a cyber component and this has forced the Armed Forces to equip themselves with the necessary countermeasures to the new cyber threats. In Italy, the Joint Forces Command for Cybernetic Operations (CIOC) was conceived precisely from this point of view, in line with the objectives defined both in Europe and in NATO, which include the creation of solid cyber defense and protection capabilities. infrastructure. The CIOC is already operational and projected towards full capacity in 2019.
