On March 10th, AFCEA Atlanta will host Vanguard Shield, a tabletop exercise bringing together representatives from Federal, State, Local and Industry for an afternoon collaborating on responding to threats to critical infrastructure. These exercises were inspired by the Jack Voltaic series of exercises developed by the Army Cyber Institute at West Point. Doors will open at 12:00 with the exercise starting at 12:30 and running until 4:30. This exercise is free to attend for registrants of the AFCEA Atlanta National Security Conference.
The coordinated cybersecurity preparedness exercise is meant to assess how events impacting critical infrastructure will be handled. It is designed to include at least two of the sixteen areas of Critical Infrastructure Sectors as identified by Homeland Security CISA. The scenario changes each year but typically involves a large trigger event and flows over the course of several turns evaluating real world impacts across multiple domains. Threats may come from a wide variety of cyber-related threats and challenges, such as state-sponsored hackers, espionage, hacktivists, ransomware and insider threats, inspired by recent events over the years.
The goal was to help identify and address gaps and inter-agency dependencies and create working relationships bringing together various government agencies, industry and academia.
Participating agencies have included:
- US Army
- US Air Force
- US Coast Guard
- Homeland Security CISA
- FBI
- FirstNet
- Georgia National Guard
- Georgia Tech Authority
- Georgia Cyber Center
- City of Atlanta
- Watershed Authority
- Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
- Critical Infrastructure partners such as CrowdStrike, AT&T, etc.
These exercises are developed around areas of interest suggested by the participants and focused on gaining key insights into how government and industry at all levels work together to respond to events impacting critical infrastructure. Bringing participants together helps develop a deeper understanding of the overall ecosystem. Knowing who to bring in, when to notify industry executives or senior government leaders, even the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Please register for the conference and if you want to participate in the exercise, choose that option: Atlanta AFCEA National Security Conference