The Live-Fire Cyber Drill exercise in Albania was a massive success!
CybExer Technologies, together with e-Governance Academy, created a four-day long cybersecurity exercise with a clear mission in mind – to enhance Albania’s, Montenegro’s, and North Macedonia’s ability to respond and defend against cyber threats and attacks.
The event happened from the 6th to the 9th of June and was supported by the European Union’s Rapid Response Project, which aims to improve cyber resilience in the Western Balkans.
The exercise started with a one-day Jeopardy-style Capture-the-Flag competition, which was followed by the three-day Live-Fire cybersecurity exercise.
In this article, we will tell you about the impact, objectives, and outcomes of this cybersecurity exercise, which provided 30 participants with practical experience in defending IT systems and ensuring the security of the whole organization.
What Were the Main Objectives of This Exercise?
When it comes to operating as a governmental organization, it is important to ensure that your team is aware of the increasing amounts of challenges and threats that exist in the cyber landscape.
Therefore, it is important to invest time and resources into conducting hands-on practical cybersecurity exercises to make sure your team is ready to face potential cyber threats and attacks.
Capture-the-Flag exercise, which was conducted throughout the first day of this initiative, is a simulated cybersecurity competition that challenges participants to find and exploit computer system vulnerabilities to “capture a flag”. This “Flag” can be a specific piece of data or code hidden within the system.
Generally, this Capture-the-Flag exercise is to provide a realistic and challenging experience that helps participants develop and refine their skills in a controlled environment.
Live-Fire exercise, on the other hand, was conducted throughout the last three days of this activity. This helped participants simulate and practice defending against real-world cyber attacks.
The objectives of the Live-Fire Cyber Drill exercise in Albania were exactly aligned with that mission – to help Albania’s, Montenegro’s, and North Macedonia’s representatives practice their skills in a realistic simulated environment and have a friendly cybersecurity competition to boost their cyber resilience.
What Were the Outcomes From the Live-Fire Cyber Drill Exercise?
Throughout the Live-Fire Cyber Drill exercise, participants gained practical experience in defending IT systems under intense cyber-attacks. CybExer Technologies provided the exercise environment, cyber range, for this activity.
We were delighted to see our special guests visiting the exercise. The President of Estonia, Alar Karis, together with the President of Albania, Bajram Begaj, were joined by the EU Ambassador in Albania, Christiane Hohmann, and other officials.
The EU Ambassador in Albania, Christiane Hohmann, had some comments about the importance of such exercises in the region:
“Joint efforts are needed to strengthen the resilience of cyberspace of the Western Balkan partners, and to raise the region’s public authorities’ awareness of cybersecurity. Engaging the best knowledge and experts, the European Union supports Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia in achieving this goal.”
Merle Maigre, the project team lead from the e-Governance Academy, stated that this exercise represents a unique opportunity for improved cooperation and information sharing:
“Our everyday lives are dependent on the resilience of our cyberspace. Practicing response to cyber attacks in a crisis simulated environment is a good way to expand the cyber safety of our critical infrastructures and services. This exercise is an excellent opportunity for the training audience to practice interagency cooperation and information sharing.“
Wrapping Up
Organizing a Live-Fire Cyber Drill exercise in Albania was a huge step towards better security and higher cyber resilience for governmental organizations in Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.
During the session, participants were able to experience a realistic training environment and defend IT systems under intense simulated cyber-attacks, helping them to improve their skills and boost their cyber resilience.
Our team at CybExer Technologies is happy to participate in such initiatives and share our expertise with other organizations globally.
