Locked Shields 2024: Cyber Defense Meets AI and 5G

Locked Shields 2024, the largest-ever cyber exercise, was completed on Thursday with 3,500 participants from 40 countries.

“Our nation's security in cyberspace is better today than it ever was because of this exercise,” said William Walker, chief of staff, Joint Force Headquarters, Department of Defense Information Network (DODIN).

Locked Shields is a yearly cybersecurity exercise focusing on critical infrastructure attacks in real time. It combines dozens of allies, including NATO members, since 2010 and is coordinated by the Estonia-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE). It operates on realistic scenarios, cutting-edge technologies and simulating a massive cyber incident, including decision-making, legal and communication aspects.

“One of the greatest things that the military has learned leaving Locked Shields for the last few years is how important the interoperability is between various interagency and intergovernmental organizations, along with our national partners,” said Maj. Gen. William Crane, adjutant general, West Virginia National Guard.

This year’s edition added artificial intelligence and 5G technology, according to the CCDCOE website.

As teams of over 100 operators from different countries and services cooperate to defend infrastructure against malicious actors, the offensive teams seek to disrupt critical infrastructure. And red team members must meet a series of requirements.

“They have an extensive evaluation process. One of the critical criteria along with training and certification and that specialized skill area, is actually also having to have served on a blue team and are a part of the technical staff that helps organize and build the actual infrastructure,” explained Gen. Crane.

Those who pose as malicious attackers do it in a unified and coordinated manner, Gen Crane told reporters at a press event.

“We don't often as a DoD get to fully simulate actual live fire with our partners, whether it's interagency, or certainly from that multinational perspective, in a way that we are able to in this environment,” Walker said.

Specific knowledge and operational details were kept to a minimum citing secrecy concerns, as is customary in such events.