Cyber Shield 2019

Do you know who’s protecting you?

It has become an all too common scene in movies now where data is stolen by mastermind hackers, or nuclear bomb codes are discovered by terrorists, but how often do we ever consider these things happening in real life? Probably not very often for most of us. However, cyber-attacks are happening every day, and the United States National Forces recognize the life-threatening importance that critical data remains safe and secure! This is not done solely through theory, it takes practice, training, and dedication; that is why over 800 people came together from around the United States to Camp Atterbury, Edinburgh Indiana to participate in Cyber Shield 2019.

What is Cyber Shield?

Cyber Shield is a Defensive Cyberspace Operations training program that brings together the US Army, Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Coast Guard, industry partners, and civilians; exercising and testing their skills in regard to cyber incidents. The goal is to train the nations first line of defense in responding to cyber-attacks against our nations vulnerable critical infrastructure and sensitive public services quickly and efficiently.

How is VectorRock involved?

VectorRock enjoys an active involvement with the training process of military professionals by providing its talent to the OPFOR (opposing force) team. They execute actual exploits to penetrate into the defending teams’ networks to maintain a continuous presence, steal data, and cause network disruption. The goal is not to crush the defense teams network and spirits, but to bring awareness to the different types of cyber risks. As VectorRock acted as an attacker against the target systems, weaving different webs of persistent access, intentional paths were made available for the defending teams to restrict and eliminate the clear and present threat they were facing. After these scenarios were completed, a collaborative deep-dive analysis of what transpired for both the OPFOR and defending teams was shared together. While the real-world does not provide the opportunity to conduct a full play-by-play analysis of what each side did, this “hotwash” provided each team invaluable information to learn from to become more effective at detecting these threats and effectively managing the impact they have.

CPT’s (Cyber Protection Teams) and DCOE’s (Defensive Cyberspace Operations Elements) proactively protect Information Networks for the Department of Defense as well as sharing their knowledge with others to organize, train, advise and assist critical infrastructure at different governmental levels. It was an honor for VectorRock to participate in this event once again, an opportunity to ensure the protection of The United State of America through collaboration and active learning.