Photo By Garth Dunkel | U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Corby Myles, the 229th cyberspace operations squadron...... read more read more
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PEMBROKE, Nh.− The Vermont National Guard’s cyber security professionals joined their colleagues from multiple government agencies, law enforcement and six corresponding Air and Army National Guard units for a two-day cyber security exercise titled, Cyber Yankee. On August 6th and 7th, Airmen, Soldiers and affiliated professionals collaborated as “Team Blue,” from across seven states to defend their respected networks against “Team Red,” a mock-up element of online attackers.
2019’s participants attended on-site at the Edward Cross Training Center, and remotely from Alabama, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont to participate in the fifth annual Cyber Yankee exercise.
The objective of Cyber Yankee was to create and defend a replicated network as it realistically mirrors everyday platforms, adding value to the skillsets of Defensive Cyberspace Operations Element (DCOE) operatives. Some of this year’s contributing partners included Massachusetts and New Hampshire State Police, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Secret Service, Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy. The projected end state is to produce a diversified resource of cyber security personnel at various government, military and infrastructure agencies.
Events such as Cyber Yankee prepares National Guardsmen as reinforcements in the event of a significant cyber incident.
“New Hampshire is a small state and we all know each other,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Woody Groton, Cyber Exercise Director, Chief Information Officer, New Hampshire National Guard. “Because of that, the government participation has been unprecedented this year. For the first time ever, in any cyber exercise that I know of, the National Guard cyber responders are actually responding to on-site with the Department of Transportation and Department of Information Technology.”
According to the informational documents provided during the exercise, more than 40 agencies have participated in Cyber Yankee since its inception. Given the established longevity and continued growth it is expected that the roster of partnering organizations will grow and gain national interest. August’s event served as a foundation for Cyber Yankee 2020, currently docketed as a national level exercise (NLE).
The 2019 event included the utilization of intelligence personnel for the purpose of incident reporting. This aspect of the exercise was to facilitate incident response and coordination from Team Blue to higher headquarters and commanders at the National Guard Bureau.
“We’re looking at the key relationships between the cyber and the physical domains and how they [our adversaries] could take down critical lifeline areas: power, water, communication, transportation,” said Mr. Chad Gorman, Director of National Exercise Division for FEMA as he discussed the 2020 Cyber Yankee platform.
2020’s Cyber Yankee exercise will feature a FEMA-led national level exerciser which will be postured as an adversary-based paradigm, mirroring the global threat environment. This will empower all affiliated agencies to leverage the skillsets of the cyber community as it continuously adapts to a higher level of preparedness and a “significant amount of community engagement,” remarked Gormon on 2020’s cyber events.
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2019 13:57 |
| Story ID: | 345385 |
| Location: | COLCHESTER, VERMONT, US |
| Web Views: | 281 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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