Colombia cyber security exercising

Summary

The project designed and conducted a cybersecurity exercise with Colombian government and military officials in May 2022.

Details

Aim

The primary objective of this project is to strengthen the cyber security and resilience of Colombia and increase collective action to disrupt and deter adversaries through participation in a cyber threat exercise for government and military officials. The focus of the project is on tackling cyber security threats, building resilience to cyber security attacks and promoting collaboration across the national cyber ecosystem.

Context

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted that in a post-lockdown world there will be a even greater reliance on cyberspace. Some sectors, such as Healthcare, are already reporting a digital transformation achieved in two months that had previously been planned for over the next 10 years. In this context cyber security policy, including our international capacity building support, remains a top priority for the UK.

This project was funded by the CSSF Cyber and Tech Programme, which directly addresses the current and likely future priorities under the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS).  The programme’s focus is on tackling cyber security threats, building resilience to cyber security attacks and promoting trusted and secure technology.  This approach will be underpinned by developing skills.

The project implementing team combines many of the best aspects of UK industry and third sector cyber expertise – research rigour from RUSI, global delivery capability from BAE Systems, and innovative technology from Immersive Labs.

Outcomes

The exercise was intended to enable the identification of areas for development and strengthening cybersecurity cooperation across national ecosystem, through working together in a simulated real-life scenario.

The learning experience provided by the exercise was itself an outcome: feedback and lessons learnt were gathered through a round table discussion at the end of the exercise and from responses to structured questions submitted immediately after the event, via email.

Outputs

The cyber threat exercise was successfully delivered on the 24^th May 2022 with very good stakeholder engagement and feedback.  A report was delivered in English and Colombian Spanish after the event outlining the observations and recommendations.

Activities

The main project activity was a threat exercise run on 24^th May 2022 by BAE Systems on behalf of the FCDO, for the Colombian Government and Military stakeholder groups.

Other website links

Cyber security & intelligence | What we do | BAE Systems | International