Atlantic Council

From AFP:  NATO's Tallinn-based cyber defence centre on Monday launched a three-day exercise involving European IT and legal experts in a bid to beef up cyber defence skills through gaming.

The "Locked Shields 2012" initiative involves cyber battles between two teams, Kristiina Pennar, a spokeswoman for the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence told AFP.

From Estonian Public Broadcasting:  The exercise, Locked Shields 2012, involves a Red Team made up mainly of volunteers from Estonia and Finland attacking nine separate Blue Teams located in countries throughout Europe. There will be Blue Teams from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy and Slovakia as well as a combined German-Austrian team, a Danish-Norwegian team and a NATO team, the center said in a statement.

Each Blue Team, which is made up of specialists from governmental organizations, military units, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and private sector companies, will take part in a simulation where they have to defend a small telecommunications company's network. No real organizations will play their actual role in the fictional scenario.  (graphic: Current)