In April, a multinational cyber defense exercise named Locked Shields will bring together Swiss military personnel and civilian cybersecurity experts to collaborate with partners from across Europe and beyond. The event, organized by the NATO Center of Excellence based in Estonia, is designed to simulate realistic threat scenarios and stress-test defensive capabilities in a controlled, high-stakes environment. Swiss participants will engage in hands-on exercises that mirror real-world cyber incidents, offering a critical opportunity to validate procedures, refine incident response playbooks, and strengthen coordination with international allies. The goal is to translate theoretical knowledge into practical skills that can be deployed rapidly when threats emerge during actual operations and missions.
Officials emphasized that the main value of the Locked Shields exercise lies in testing and improving cyber defense capabilities under pressure. The practice environment enables cyber teams to identify gaps in detection, response, and recovery workflows, then implement enhancements that make systems more resilient against disruptive campaigns. By simulating coordinated attacks on networks, data centers, and essential services, participants gain insight into how adversaries might exploit weak points and how to deploy countermeasures with precision and speed. The ongoing collaboration across national forces reinforces a shared understanding of best practices and strengthens trust among allied partners.
With a focus on tactical-level cyber operations, the Swiss government underscored that the exercise will prioritize training in the use of technical tools and procedures that frontline teams rely on during real incidents. Practitioners will practice monitoring, threat hunting, event correlation, and rapid containment strategies in scenarios that demand both analytical rigor and decisive action. The program is designed to bridge the gap between strategic planning and on-the-ground execution, ensuring that cyber defense concepts translate into effective, repeatable results during actual missions and exercises alike.
During the previous year, NATO officials highlighted the importance of collaborative defense efforts, noting that Locked Shields forms part of a broader initiative to strengthen alliance readiness. In late 2023, senior leaders signaled that the Coalition would continue to expand its cyber defense activities, maintaining Estonia as a hub for defense innovation and international cooperation. The initiative brings together responders from multiple sectors to test interoperability, share insights, and benchmark performance against rigorous standards. The event also serves as a platform for exchanging lessons learned, refining training curricula, and aligning on common response protocols that can be applied across borders in the face of evolving cyber threats.
Estonian defense authorities reported robust participation, drawing hundreds of specialists from more than two dozen allied countries, including representatives from Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, and Switzerland. The exercise drew academic participants and researchers who contribute in areas such as software assurance, threat intelligence, and defensive engineering. Observers from countries outside the alliance contributed perspectives that enriched scenario planning and helped illuminate potential blind spots in defense architectures. The combined expertise of military personnel and the scientific community supports a comprehensive approach to hardening networks, securing digital infrastructure, and validating recovery capabilities across a wide range of environments.
As the Locked Shields program progresses, observers and participants alike will assess how well collective defenses withstand sophisticated techniques that blend social engineering, malware deployment, and outages in critical services. The exercise emphasizes not only technical proficiency but also organizational readiness, including incident coordination, communications protocols, and decision-making processes under stress. The lessons learned from this international collaboration are expected to influence national cyber strategy, inform investment decisions, and guide the evolution of training programs across partner nations. By maintaining a steady cadence of joint exercises, the community aims to advance resilience, shorten response times, and elevate the overall security posture of the participating states and their citizens.