Swedish-Icelandic Team Wins the World's Largest Cyber Exercise

From 18 to 21 April, the exercise Locked Shields was conducted, annually organised by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), with over 3,000 participants from around the world. The Swedish side was coordinated by the Swedish Armed Forces with participants from, among others, the financial sector.

The Swedish-Icelandic team won the exercise, followed by an American-Estonian and a Polish team in second and third place, respectively. This year, the exercise gathered participants from 38 countries where the teams, in addition to protecting the systems, also had to solve challenges in areas such as IT forensics and crisis communication.

According to an article on the Swedish Armed Forces' website, Major General Johan Pekkari, responsible for cyber defence, commented that "this type of cybersecurity exercise is a valuable way to increase capability across the board" and that "it was interesting to visit such a large cybersecurity exercise and see how it is conducted. The participants were engaged and focused. It is impressive to see how a temporarily assembled team can perform at this level."

Congratulations have also been frequent on social media. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on his Instagram that he called team leader Patrik Fältström to convey his congratulations. The Minister for Civil Defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, wrote that he is proud of the Swedish participants on his LinkedIn.