The Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (Ccdcoe) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) has kicked off the "Locked Shields 2023" military exercise (April 18-21), the largest in the world in this sector held in Tallinn, Estonia. For Italy, the Undersecretary of Defense, Matteo Perego di Cremnago, was also present at the Defense Network Operations Command (COR).

"No other cyber defense exercise offers as varied and detailed an experience as 'Locked Shields': 24 teams from all over the world will have to keep critical infrastructure and IT systems operational. Around 500 organizers have been working on the preparations for over seven months, creating over 5500 virtual systems in order to operate the systems in real-life situations and under conditions of considerable pressure", explained the director of CCDCOE, Mart Noorma.

The Cyber Defense exercise will see 3,000 participants from 38 countries. The training concerns the protection of computer systems from attacks in real time: the computer defense departments will have to defend computer networks, simulating the taking of tactical and strategic decisions in a critical situation, to then analyze their practical effects. The goal of "Locked Shields" is to support member countries by conferring interdisciplinary expertise on the areas of interest of technology, strategy, operations and law.