On Wednesday, Minister of Justice and Emergency Situations Emilie Enger Mehl visited Locked Shields, the largest cyber exercise of this type in the world. There, she announced that Norway will organize a large national digital security exercise next year.
Minister Mehl at cyber exercises
– It is important for Norway to participate in this type of exercises, which aim to strengthen the country's resistance to cyberattacks. Cybersecurity is a very important part of Norway's overall preparedness, he says Minister of Justice and Emergency Situations Emilie Enger Mehl.
The Locked Shields exercise is one of the biggest ones cybersecurity exercises in the world. The exercises include both civil-military, public-private and international cooperation. The Locked Shields program is run annually by NATO competence center for Cybersecurity in Tallinn. In Norway, Cyber Defense and NSM are responsible for implementation.
This year, Norway is cooperating with the USA and Montenegro. In exercises takes part approximately 4000 experts from over 40 countries. Norway is participating in the study with a team consisting of representatives from both armed forcesas well as the civil sector.
– The aim of Norway's participation is to train response communities in the civilian and military sectors in in incident management from a comprehensive defense perspective. Leading Norwegian cybersecurity experts train here every year. Specialists from private companies are also part of the Norwegian team. This year, Norwegian exercise participants are in a team with one of our most important allies, leading to an exchange of expertise both at the planning stage and through actual cooperation during the exercise. It paves the way for enhanced cooperation in the future. Only through broad cooperation can we successfully meet the challenges we face, says Mehl.
Locked Shields exercises are crucial to digital security
This year, Norway is also participating at a strategic level in the Locked Shields exercise, which is a priority exercise for Norwegian ministries. This exercise is therefore one of the most important digital security exercises in Norway,
– There are exercises an important way of increasing society's capacity to address crises and strengthen social protection and preparedness work. That's why I'm pleased to announce that the Government has decided that a new national digital security exercise will take place next year. The last time we planned such an exercise was in 2021, and due to the current pandemic, it was significantly limited. We previously organized national digital security exercises in 2008 and 2016. That's why we think it's very important to organize a new national exercise of this kind, says Mehl.
The Directorate of Social Security and Preparedness (DSB) will be responsible for planning and conducting the exercise in close cooperation with the National Security Authority (NSM) and other key actors, including the business sector.
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Source: regjeringen, Photo: pixabay
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