NATO has launched its largest ever multinational cyber defense exercise code-named "Cyber Coalition 2014," according a statement issued by the alliance said Tuesday.
The three-day training event will test the western military alliance's ability to defend its networks from the various challenges that exist when operating in the contested cyber domain.
"This exercise will test our systems to make sure that NATO keeps pace with that evolving threat and that the skills and expertise of our cyber specialists are fully up to the task," said Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges.
"Among the priorities highlighted in the Enhanced NATO Policy on Cyber Defense, endorsed at the Wales Summit, is training and exercises," he added.
The exercise involves over 400 technical, government and cyber experts operating from dozens of locations from across the Alliance and partner nations. For the first time, representatives from academia and industry have been invited as observers.
The aim of the exercise is to test the rapid sharing of information about cyber incidents. The drill will also test the ability of the participating nations to coordinate a defense against a series of targeted cyber incidents involving a NATO mission network.
"The cyber threat is not just a potential threat, it is daily reality," Ducaru said. "Conflicts can be virtual but with consequences that are real and destructive."
At the recent Wales Summit, NATO allies had agreed that cyber-attacks could reach a threshold that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability. Their impact could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack. NATO leaders also affirmed that cyber defense a part of NATO's core task of collective defense.
"Cyber Coalition 2014" is the seventh such annual exercise.
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