For the last ten years, Turkey has been participating in the Exercise initiated in 2010 by the NATO CCDCOE, established in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, in 2008. Turkey ranked 18th in 2019 and 14th in 2021.
Turkey participated in the Exercise, which was held with the highest participation ever, under the Turkish Armed Forces Cyber Defence Command coordination, together with the cyber security experts of institutions and companies, including HAVELSAN.
HAVELSAN contributed to the Exercise in the categories of malware, network security and web security; Turkey was among the three most prosperous countries in the category of malware.,
During two days, more than 2000 participants from 32 nations practised national IT systems and critical infrastructure protection under the pressure of a large-scale cyberattack at the annual live-fire cyber defence exercise Locked Shields. In addition to protecting numerous cyber-physical systems, the participating teams practice tactical and strategic decision making, cooperation and the chain of command in a crisis where they also have to tackle forensic and legal issues and respond to information operations challenges.
The annual real-time network defence exercise is a unique opportunity for cyber defenders to practise the protection of national IT systems and critical infrastructure under the pressure of a severe cyberattack.
According to the scenario, a fictional island country located in the northern Atlantic Ocean, Berylia, is experiencing a deteriorating security situation as there have been several coordinated cyberattacks against Berylian military and civilian IT systems. These attacks have caused severe disruptions to the operation of government and military networks, communications, water purification systems and the electric power grid and eventually led to public unrest and protests. The exercise includes the simulation of a central bank's reserve management and financial messaging systems for the first time. Additionally, a 5G Standalone mobile communication platform is deployed as part of critical infrastructure to give the first experience to cyber defenders about upcoming technology changes.
Exercise Locked Shields is a Red Team (RT) vs Blue Team (BT) exercise with Teams formed by member nations and partners of CCDCOE. In 2022 24 BTs are participating with an average of 50 experts on each Team. The teams take on the role of national cyber Rapid Reaction Teams deployed to assist a fictional country in handling a large-scale cyber incident with all its implications. The Exercise involves about 5500 virtualised systems subject to more than 8000 attacks. In addition to securing complex IT systems, the participating teams must also effectively report incidents and solve forensic, legal, media operations and information warfare challenges.
The Team from Finland won the largest and most complex international live-fire cyber defence exercise, Locked Shields 2022. Lithuania-Poland's joint Team takes second place, and the Estonian-Georgian joint Team comes third.
