The U.S. National Guard is conducting a cyber exercise with industry representatives and federal entities like the National Security Agency and the FBI to expand military capabilities in cyber defense, Cyberscoop reported Monday.
This year’s Cyber Shield event will run through April 20 at Camp Atterbury in Indiana and include 800 participants from 40 states. The exercise covers red-and-blue-team operations designed to test participants’ capacity to detect malicious activities and block unauthorized access to networks.
Brig. General Jeffrey Burkett, vice director of domestic operations for the National Guard Bureau, said the collective training event will help the National Guard enhance its warfighting skills.
“We used to have attacks that were very noisy. Now we have attacks that are going over encrypted channels,†said George Battistelli, cybersecurity program manager for the Army National Guard.
Cyber Shield was launched in 2013 and is expected to help the National Guard develop its staff of more than 3,800 cybersecurity personnel.