La. Guard’s Cyber Team places 2nd at national exercise
By Staff Sgt. David Kirtland, Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office
NEW ORLEANS – Soldiers with the Louisiana National Guard’s 178th Cyber Protection Team placed second out of 36 teams during NetWars, the culminating event during Cyber Shield 2023 at the Army Guard Professional Education Center at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Arkansas, last month.
NetWars is a premier cyber range, appropriate for all cyber security skill levels and poses a series of multifaceted, interactive and situational cyber security challenges that test a wide variety of disciplines and subject matter across five levels that increase in difficulty which may be completed individually or as a team.
“NetWars is a hands-on interactive learning exercise that allows our personnel to test and demonstrate the depth of their skills by each individually responding to a continuous series of increasingly difficult cyber security challenges to earn team points until the competition time runs out,” said Maj. Anthony LaNasa, 178th CPT leader.
Cyber Shield, first launched in 2007, is the largest unclassified cyber defense exercise and designed to help develop capabilities and test cyber forces in computer-network internal defensive measures and cyber incident responses.
“Cyber Shield provides us an annual exercise to practice and hone our ability to conduct cyber operations in support of our federal and state mission requirements,” said LaNasa. “It also gives us an opportunity to evaluate potential recruits to the 178th and give them an opportunity to showcase their skills in cyber operations.”
These capabilities facilitate National Guard Cyber Teams’ abilities to coordinate, train and assist federal, state and industry network owners threatened by cyber-attacks. The focus of this year’s exercise was on responding to an attack on critical infrastructure.
“As traditional National Guard Soldiers, it can be very challenging to train on collective cyber tasks to defend against the tactics, techniques and procedures used by cyber threat actors in the real world,” said 1st Lt. Adam Spoor, 178th CPT, who attended the training event. “Cyber Shield provided that opportunity in a safe and effective training environment. The opposing forces tasked with attacking our networks used real TTPs, so the 178th CPT will be better prepared to respond to future cyber incidents.”
This year, more than 800 personnel participated, including National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from 36 states, 15 international partners from five nations, interagency partners from all levels of government and cyber leaders ranging from high-tech corporations to local utilities.
During the first week of the exercise, participants take part in 15 training classes and hands-on exercises. These classes give service members the opportunity to receive industry-standard certifications valuable for both military and civilian careers. These certifications typically cost hundreds of dollars but are provided to participants free of charge.
“The training provided at Cyber Shield directly contributed to several 178th Soldiers earning DoD recognized, industry-standard cyber security certifications. The exercise allowed us to practice defensive cyber operations as a team in a training environment based on a very realistic cyber security scenario,” said Spoor. “We not only had to set up our cyber tools and refine our operations, but also coordinate with supporting teams, such as legal, public affairs and intel/fusion, throughout the exercise.”
An estimated 2,200 cyber-attacks occur daily, which equates to more than 800,000 people being hacked per year, costing the U.S. more than $6 trillion in 2022. These attacks often cripple the operations of businesses, corporations, and industries across the U.S.
“Many of the 178th CPT Soldiers are employed in cyber security roles at large civilian, military, and government organizations,” said Spoor. “From a cyber perspective, they are ‘in the fight’ at their full-time jobs on a daily basis, so we are able to leverage their vast knowledge bases and skillsets when we respond to incidents.”
The 178th CPT, first activated in 2017, has responded to more than 12 state cyber incidents and has mobilized twice federally to Fort Meade in Maryland.
This is the third year the 178th CPT has participated in Cyber Shield.