FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. –
Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, U.S. Cyber Command commander, announced the winner of Cyber Flag 21-2 or "Big Flag" during a live virtual closing ceremony today.
Team 15 from the Royal Canadian Navy is this year’s Cyber Flag 21-2 winner. Commodore Matthew Bowen, vice J5 Multinational Partnerships and Integration, U.S. Cyber Command accepted the award on behalf of the Canada based team.
Cyber Flag is the U.S. Department of Defense’s premier annual cyber training exercise.
More than 430 cyber professionals from across the U.S. military’s joint services, interagency and international partners participated in this defensive focused cyber exercise.
“Cyber Flag 21-2 tested the best and brightest cyber protection teams. This exercise assessed their tactical cyber skills while collectively improving our cyber resiliency. I’d also like to congratulate the Royal Canadian Navy’s Cyber Protection Team, the winner of this year’s event,” said Nakasone.
The 17 Cyber Protection Teams CPTs included international participants from Canada and the United Kingdom. CPTs from the United States include the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Coast Guard, the National Guard and service cyber component commands.
Cyber Flag 21-2 was executed using the Persistent Cyber Training Environment PCTE. This years’ virtual training ranges were five-times larger than previous exercises. Operated remotely across eight time zones and three countries, PCTE enabled Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States with the flexibility to synchronize virtual competition.
For the first time the exercise not only trained cyber operators in a tough competitive environment but also identified characteristics of successful CPTs.
During the exercise the CPTs performed their defensive tasks countering the actions and injects within the scenario. Each team was assessed on their specific cyber
defensive actions by Cyber Command assessors, who recorded best practices and tactics, techniques, and procedures. These insights were then shared with all participants, further evolving future training and defensive cybersecurity actions.
The Cyber Flag exercise series provides a unique opportunity for government, industry and academia to train together, holistically improving skills to defend against future attacks.