US Cyber Command Holds First Installment of Cyber Flag Exercise for 2022

Over 275 cyber experts across the Department of Defense, U.S. federal agencies and the Five Eyes Alliance participated in the first iteration of the U.S. Cyber Command‘s Cyber Flag 22.

Cyber Flag is the command’s annual defensive cyber exercise, which allows participants to train against malicious actors to improve readiness and interoperability. For the 2022 iteration of the event, the participants worked together to combat simulated threats from over 60 red team operators represented by experts from the U.S. and the U.K.

Professionals from Five Eyes acted as cyber protection teams while intelligence experts from New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. provided information and insights to the CPTs.

Red teams were tasked with compromising networks at fictional facilities. The CPTs were required to detect, identify, isolate and combat adversarial presence in those networks, CYBERCOM said.

The CPTs’ decisions would build upon each other, resulting in either a successful defensive measure or more challenges for the team. To make the exercise more complex, teams could not communicate with each other until the scenario allowed for cross-communication.

The teams were allowed to use all the tools available to them during real-world cybersecurity missions.

A multinational symposium and tabletop exercise took place separately but in conjunction with Cyber Flag 22. During this event, leaders attended seminars, discussions and working groups to develop ideas for improving cyber-related interoperability.

The second installment of Cyber Flag 22 will take place in October. The planning for that event is still ongoing.