Big Bytes: US partners with European partners to protect cybersecurity | Article

LAUREL, Md. – The 169th Cyber ​​Defense Team of the Maryland National Guard, the 175th Operation Support Squadron of the Maryland National Guard, and members from the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for short. AFBiH, participated in a joint cyber seminar at Pvt. Henry Costin’s Readiness Center in Laurel, Maryland, on June 29, 2022.

The Maryland Cyberspace Initiative is growing, and the 169th CPTTT is an important part of Maryland’s complementary overall strategic direction of intelligence, cyber, and information capabilities for both federal and state missions. state.

Army brigade. General Adam Flasch, Chief of Staff, Maryland National Guard, observed the exercise and spoke to AFBiH soldiers and members, emphasizing the importance of cyber military capabilities.

“Everybody is a peer competitor in cyberspace,” says Flasch. “Our job is to ensure that not only our networks are protected, but our partners’ networks are robust and able to repel attacks. And, when attacked, must immediately and return to normal as quickly as possible. “

Starting in August 2018, the 169th CPTTT supported military-to-military knowledge transfer and team building events with AFBiH. The Maryland National Guard has been a partner with Bosnia and Herzegovina for nearly 30 years through the National Guard Service’s State Partnership Program.

The unit is currently undertaking a four-phase approach to support the assessment of the AFBiH network infrastructure and will provide guidance on the way forward. The four steps are: establishing a baseline of a cyber incident response plan, establishing a legal and technical framework for cyber operations, integrating training and staffing, and finally, expanding knowledge knowledge and expertise. End-state is helping to create a secure, shard, scalable, agile, decentralized, proactive, innovative, and intelligent network with an independent cybersecurity architecture heavily on critical infrastructure.

“We will work to bring their SOPs together, fill out the procedures in their playbook and help them understand the strategy part of the game. [cyber security],” added warranty officer Marcus Vendittuoli, project lead for the SPP event with the 169th CPT, sharing some insight into the four-stage approach.

Incident response plans teach network users and cyber professionals how to respond when something strange starts happening on their computer or network. Without a plan, someone may not know what to do or who to talk to in the event of a network problem. Since computer malware can infect a network quickly, every minute counts.

“If someone realizes their computer is restarting on its own or something like that, you will put in place an incident response plan,” said warranty manager James Stahecki, a member of CPTth 169. “At that point, defenders will take steps to find out what’s going on and secure the network.”

Civilian and military organizations are frequently the target of cyber attacks. These attacks can leak personal information, hold systems hostage for ransom, or even remotely control some aspects of the system. The risk to the organization is high, so everyone in the organization must be a sensor and point out anomalies. The 169th CPTPP works with many organizations in the US to help them improve their cyber readiness.

“Whatever we do where we integrate with our partners – both Estonia, a NATO ally, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as they seek NATO consideration – the similarities,” says Flasch. It’s not just technical skills that are being transferred. “That is the shared experience of the Soldiers and Air Force as they work with their partners. Information shared goes both ways and we can see what each other deals with on a daily basis. “

The 169th CPTPP was established in 2017 to bring a more secure cyber program to the Maryland National Guard. The main mission of this organization is to support the validation of other Cyber ​​Defense Groups around the world. This includes supporting events such as Cyber ​​Shield and Cyber ​​Flag, events aimed at developing, training, and enforcing cyber forces in the areas of computer network internal defenses and response. network incidents, as well as working with Maryland’s State Partnership Program partners in AFBiH and the Estonian Self-Defense Forces.