Navy Conducting Cyber Training Program for Reservists

U.S. Navy Reserve sailors are participating in the second iteration of Operation Cyber Dragon, an initiative by the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and the U.S. 10th Fleet to teach reservists to pinpoint and remediate unclassified, front-facing network vulnerabilities.

Participants have so far worked on network or asset misconfigurations, certificate issues and patch management, the Navy said Monday. 

The exercise, which is ongoing at military installations in Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas, involves hunt missions on internal networks to locate potential exploits and threats. Reserve sailors are expected to attend “active-training periods” that include instruction and training sessions by operations staff.

According to the Navy, hundreds of reserve sailors have undergone training through Operation Cyber Dragon.

Efforts under Operation Cyber Dragon are meant to support the Department of Defense Information Network.

Officials said the exercise’s first iteration in 2022 resulted in over 14,000 exploits identified, almost all of which were resolved.