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NATO's Cyber Coalition Exercise: A Test of International Cooperation in the Face of Modern Cyber Threats
NATO's Cyber Coalition exercise brings together 29 NATO member nations and seven partner countries to simulate real-world cyberattacks on critical national infrastructure systems. The exercise tests the mettle of participating nations' cyber defenders against modern tradecraft and is tailored to current training demands. The Cyber Coalition exercise is meticulously crafted each year through storyline conferences and scripting conferences, strengthening defenders' cooperation skills. This year's exercise featured seven concurrent missions related to real-world cyberattacks with spillover effects on countries' traditional warfighting capabilities. The success of the exercise is measured by nations' ability to work together effectively and share information in real-time, not by individual country performance. The exercise highlighted the importance of breaking down communication barriers and building trust between participating countries. NATO officials emphasized the need for confidentiality, but noted that participants worked together without facing real consequences, unlike previous exercises. The Cyber Coalition exercise serves as a testing ground for NATO's cybersecurity capabilities and provides a platform for international cooperation in the face of modern cyber threats.
NATO's annual Cyber Coalition exercise has once again proven to be a benchmark for international cooperation in the face of modern cyber threats. The biennial event, which commenced in 2008 and takes place every year since, brings together military personnel from 29 NATO member nations and seven partner countries to simulate real-world cyberattacks on critical national infrastructure systems.
The exercise, which typically lasts a week and is mentally exhausting for all involved, tests the mettle of participating nations' cyber defenders against modern tradecraft. The simulated attacks are tailored to the current training demands of nations responsible for defending these kinds of attacks on real militaries' systems, with each year's storylines influenced by real-world attacks from the past 12 months.
The Cyber Coalition exercise is meticulously crafted each year through a series of storyline conferences attended by participating member countries that are designed to strengthen defenders' cooperation skills. The draft storylines are then taken to a series of scripting conferences where the details are fleshed out by participating nations. Representatives will pick one story to develop and pitch the details to NATO, which will then refine it before becoming a confirmed scenario.
This year's exercise featured seven concurrent missions, or storylines, each related to real-world cyberattacks that have spillover effects on countries' traditional, kinetic warfighting capabilities. Some were handling a cyberattack on a critical national infrastructure (CNI) system, while others were trying to find an adversary in a nation's backups, or working with an attack on a satellite communications provider.
The success of the exercise is not measured by the defeat of any particular country or team, but rather by the ability of participating nations to work together effectively and share information in real-time. The shared responsibility for success is designed to build trust between participating countries, which are not always willing to share many details about how they operate.
NATO officials were reluctant to offer any concrete indications about the outcome of this year's exercise, citing the need to maintain confidentiality and avoid revealing too much about the storylines used in the simulation. However, one storyline did involve an attack on a fuel management system, which featured malware. Participants were tasked with investigating the incident, understanding how the malware worked, how it was distributed, and mitigating the operational effects of deployment.
The exercise also highlighted the importance of communication barriers being broken down as the exercise progresses. Participants took frequent breaks from the simulation room to mingle in common areas too, including a Thanksgiving spread arranged by the US team for around 70 of their Cyber Coalition teammates.
In previous exercises, nations were pitted against one another in a red-blue team scenario, with winners and losers determined based on performance. However, this year's exercise took a different approach, with participants working together to tackle modern threats and learn from each other without facing real consequences.
As Commander Brian Caplan noted during an interview with The Register, "Most of the twists are just making [the story] either more complex or we did too much... We either made it too difficult in the beginning, like too many injects, and so we had to space it out a little bit this year, or we were too slow, and then we had to add more engines. So, some of it's just like the flow of the exercise or the storyline, to make sure it can complement as many nations as possible that we can do."
The Cyber Coalition exercise serves as an important testing ground for NATO's cybersecurity capabilities and provides a platform for international cooperation in the face of modern cyber threats. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, it is essential that participating nations remain vigilant and continue to work together to improve their defenses.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/NATOs-Cyber-Coalition-Exercise-A-Test-of-International-Cooperation-in-the-Face-of-Modern-Cyber-Threats-ehn.shtml
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/12/10/nato_cyber_training/
Published: Wed Dec 10 06:53:00 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
