According to the conductor of the exercise, director of the MoD Cyber Security and Information Technology Department Arvydas Plėštys, the exercise tested procedures laid out in the national cyber incident management plan and trained skills of cyber security staff to detect and respond to cyber-attacks. “Among the exercise objectives was also closer cooperation of the participating institutions. It is great that we are beginning to form a cyber security expert community and have established a fruitful cooperation with the academic community,” A. Plėštys said.
“May the cyber shield be a strong one and this exercise become a tradition and involve more participants every time,” J.Olekas said. According to the Minister, holding such exercises on an annual basis is indispensable due to the fact that cyber threat s and attacks are increasingly frequent and sophisticated, while the harm they cause may disrupt operation of national information systems and infrastructure.
Organisers of the exercise expect that the experience the participating managerial staff and cybersecurity specialists have gained and the interinstitutional contacts they have established at both, procedural and technical parts of the exercise, will enable them to give an effective response in case of a real-life cyber security threat.
At the procedural part on the first day of the exercise in Vilnius representatives in leading positions of the participating institutions trained to manage cyber incidents on the basis of Lithuania’s legal base developed to address cyber security, the rights, duties and responsibilities of institutions.
Technical part of the exercise took place on September 28 and 29. According to the exercise scenario, representatives of the participating institutions formed 5 teams to protect a virtual information infrastructure created for the exercise and to ensure provision of its services. The teams trained from exercise sites in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda which were installed for the exercise with assistance of Vilnius University and the Kaunas University of Technology.
Prevention, detection and management of cyber incidents during the exercise will be implemented on the basis of the endorsed national cyber security management plan and organisation and technical cyber security requirements.
The exercise is organised by Cyber Security and Information Technologies Department of the Ministry of National Defence and Cyber Security and Telecommunications Service under the Ministry of National Defence operating as the National Cyber Security Centre with additional resources provided by Vilnius University and the Kaunas University of Technology.
