Iceland and Sweden‘s joint team participates in world’s largest cyber defence exercise

NATO’s cyber defence exercise Locked Shields 2024 has concluded with Iceland participating in a joint team with Sweden, the newest member of the Alliance. The exercise is organized and executed by NATOs Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, of which Iceland is a member.  

The Icelandic team consisted of a group of 20 specialist from the public and private sectors. This year the focus was on giving members of the financial sector an opportunity to participate in the exercise. Therefore, the Icelandic group included experts from the Central Bank of Iceland, Iceland's Financial Market Data Centre (RB), Arion Bank, Íslandsbanki and Kvika Bank as well as from Reykjavik Metropolitan Police, Iceland’s national CERT, CERT-IS, and the Directorate for Defence at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  

"To protect Iceland and our citizens against today's challenges, such as hybrid and cyber threats, a comprehensive whole of society approach is needed. That is why we are extremely grateful to the organizations and private companies that took the time to participate in Locked Shields. Public-private cooperation is essential in strengthening Iceland's cyber defences. This was also a welcomed opportunity to strengthen our defence cooperation with Sweden in this area," said Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs.  

Locked Shields is the largest cyber defence exercise in the world, with more than 4,000 experts from 40 countries taking part this year. During the exercise, which is set up as a competition, the teams are tasked with thwarting fierce cyber and computer attacks by hostile parties. During the exercise, the teams defended against around 8,000 cyber-attacks.  

Participation in the exercise is an important part of strengthening cyber defence in Iceland and is part of the government's cyber action plan that was approved last year alongside a new cyber security strategy for Iceland. Good and close cooperation between the public and private sectors plays a key role in strengthening civil defence in an ever-changing security landscape.