{"id":228041,"date":"2024-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=228041"},"modified":"2024-07-18T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T14:20:44","slug":"guard-international-partners-train-on-cyber-skills-in-slovenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=228041","title":{"rendered":"Guard, International Partners Train on Cyber Skills in Slovenia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Maryland Army National Guard Sgt. Emmanuel Unaka, cyber threat intelligence analyst with Cyber Protection Team 169, listens to Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina Lt. Armin Kola\u0161inac, a Security Operations Center member, during the Adriatic Regional Security Cyber Cooperation exercise at the Slovenian Armed Forces Baron Andrej \u010cehovin barracks in Postojna, Slovenia, July 5, 2024. The two-week cybersecurity training event included 60 representatives from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia and their National Guard State Partnership Program counterparts from New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, Iowa, Maine and Colorado, respectively. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Maj. Benjamin Hughes)
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ARLINGTON, Va. \u2013 More than 140 National Guard members from six states worked alongside international partners in a cyber training exercise to expand interoperability and track and eliminate cyber threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps develop advanced threat-hunting capabilities while ensuring awareness of the network environment and building those skill sets with other nations in a collaborative setting,\u201d said Lt. Col. David Cutler, the head of cyber operations with the Colorado Army National Guard and deputy director of the Adriatic Regional Cyber Coordination Exercise.<\/p>\n

The two-week exercise, which ran through July 5 in Postonja, Slovenia, was split into a training phase and an exercise phase.<\/p>\n

Cutler said that during the first week, the teams trained on the tools they used to defend a virtual network during the exercise.<\/p>\n

Attacks to the virtual network came \u201cat various skill levels from the obvious or unsophisticated to advanced techniques to allow teams with varying skill sets to learn new defensive cyber techniques,\u201d said Cutler.<\/p>\n

On the final day of the exercise, participants implemented their response plan in what Cutler described as a \u201ccyber knife fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re validating the information you see, and then coming up with an execution plan for the last day of the exercise to basically do all those actions you\u2019d requested during the week to, hopefully, kick out the aggressors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exercise focused on collaboration among teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not executing this exercise as a competition, but more as collective learning,\u201d said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Erik Howg, with the Iowa Air National Guard and the exercise director. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to work on kind of a common mission platform that we all can use, if called to defend our networks in this type of environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with partner nations was an integral part of the exercise, said Cutler, adding that the Department of Defense National Guard State Partnership Program, which pairs Guard elements in each state with partner nations worldwide, played a key role.<\/p>\n

The exercise included international teams from Slovenia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania and Montenegro. The seven SPP partner nations and Guard teams from New Jersey, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Iowa worked hand in hand with those from their respective partners in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cFocusing on the SPP program has been awesome,\u201d Cutler said. \u201cUs stepping in with our SPP partners, it\u2019s kind of a continuation of what they\u2019re building out in the region as their active defenses. So, we\u2019re just one part of a layered structure they\u2019re already building.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the exercise provided a platform to develop those relationships further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learn from each other on the SPP piece,\u201d said Cutler. \u201cI think that just helps to reinforce what the SPP program is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guard members brought an added element to the exercise, as many have civilian IT and network experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is just showcasing the amount of expertise we have in the Guard because we have that bleed-over from civilian life,\u201d said Cutler. \u201cWe have a lot of subject matter experts in the Guard that have specialized training that you wouldn\u2019t normally see in an active component unit that we kind of bring to the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That expertise was an essential asset during the exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s super helpful when you\u2019re doing these kinds of exercises with other countries to have those experts that can kind of look over your shoulder,\u201d said Howg. \u201cAs well as being participants, they\u2019re kind of secondary instructors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that helped develop cybersecurity teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cCybersecurity just takes a long time to really develop the skill set for, from my observations, and it\u2019s not something that can be rushed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Planners are already looking toward those taking part in subsequent iterations of the exercise, slated for every two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome ready to learn,\u201d said Cutler. \u201cIt\u2019s tough with that jet lag sometimes, but you have to play through it and then be willing to learn from others and to be able to apply what you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

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Maryland Army National Guard Sgt. Emmanuel Unaka, cyber threat intelligence analyst with Cyber Protection Team 169, listens to Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina Lt. Armin Kola\u0161inac, a Security Operations Center member, during the Adriatic Regional Security Cyber Cooperation exercise at the Slovenian Armed Forces Baron Andrej \u010cehovin barracks in Postojna, Slovenia, July 5, 2024. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228043,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228044,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228041\/revisions\/228044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/228043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}