Exercise Cyber Coalition 2022 Concludes in Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia – NATO has concluded its largest annual cyber defence exercise, Cyber Coalition 2022, which involved more than 1,000 cyber defenders from 26 NATO Allies, invitees Finland and Sweden, as well as Georgia, Ireland, Japan, Switzerland, the European Union, and participants from industry and academia. This year’s event took place between November 28th and December 2nd in Tallinn, Estonia, as well as remotely.

The best part about this exercise […] is that it is a collaborative and cooperative environment and it is not a competition,» said Commander Charles Elliott, Cyber Coalition 2022 Exercise Director, United States Navy. «Building on the success of this year, we will incorporate more real-world lessons learned as we go into next year,» he added.

The NATO’s Allied Command Transformation-led annual exercise Cyber Coalition tests and trains cyber defenders from across the Alliance in their ability to defend NATO and national networks.

Cyber Coalition 2022 is a perfect venue for experimentation, driving cyberspace warfare and capability development. It is used inter alia to test and validate concepts, capture requirements or explore Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, in support of military operators and commanders. Cyber Coalition 2022 experimentation campaign included experiments on the use of Artificial Intelligence to help counter cyber threats, on the standardization of cyber messages to foster information sharing, and on the exploitation of Cyber Threat Intelligence to inform Cyberspace Situational Awareness. Cyber Coalition experimentation campaign is coordinated by Allied Command Transformation and conducted yearly in collaboration with stakeholders from NATO organizations, nations, industry and academia.

Cyber Coalition 2022 is based on a challenging, realistic scenario where a powerful threat actor tries to compromise a NATO mission by conducting advanced and sophisticated cyber operations. These operations trigger the coordination and collaboration of participating NATO, Allied and partner cyber defenders. The scenario helps prepare cyber defenders for real-life cyber challenges, including attacks on critical infrastructure as well as disruption of NATO and allied assets while in operations.

«Malign actors seek to degrade our critical infrastructure, interfere with our government services, extract intelligence, steal intellectual property and impede our military activities. Allies are committed to protecting their critical infrastructure, building resilience and bolstering their cyber defences. We will continue raising our guard against such malicious cyber activities in the future, and support each other to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats, including by considering possible collective responses,» said Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Philippe Lavigne, French Air and Space Force.

Cyber Coalition is NATO’s flagship annual collective cyber defence exercise and one of the largest in the world. It is planned and conducted by Allied Command Transformation under the governance of the Military Committee.