We brought home victory from the international cyber defense exercise Locked Shields 2025 Partner Run!

The Locked Shields 2025 Partner Run for cyber defense was a huge success for us. The team, whose core was made up of employees from the HPC and IT departments of the University of Tartu, came first!

Locked Shields 2025 Partners Run is the official pre-exercise for the major international exercise. Partners Run offers participants a unique opportunity to test new solutions and practice cooperation in a tense environment that simulates real-world national crisis situations – from large-scale cyberattacks to strategic and legal decision-making. The exercise is organized by the NATO Cyber ​​Defence Cooperation Centre (CCDCOE).

Many thanks to all partners: Estonian Defence League’s Cyber Unit, Cybernetica, gotoAndPlay, CyberFish, Bolt, Põltsamaa Rural Municipality Government, Dicefinger, Glia, GuavaHR, Hacker Institute, META Advisory, National Archives and Trimble Inc.

Locked Shields 2025 kicks off this week in Tallinn, bringing together nearly 4000 cyber experts from 41 nations for the world’s most complex live-fire cyber defence exercise.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, #LockedShields challenges multinational teams to defend critical civilian and military systems under intense real-world pressure. Participants must respond to relentless #cyberattacks on energy grids and communications systems to disruptions in vital services, political pressure, disinformation campaigns, and infrastructure crises — all while coordinating technical #defence, legal response, strategic communications, and national decision-making in real-time.

“In a world where cyber threats cross every border, Locked Shields proves that resilience in cyberspace is built together,” said Mart Noorma, Director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). “Bringing nations, experts, and partners together in real-time defence is more vital than ever — and CCDCOE is proud to stand at the heart of that mission.”

Locked Shields is unique in the scope and depth of cooperation between nations, academia, international organisations, and industry partners that bring to the exercise special systems, advanced capabilities, and cutting-edge technologies from all over the world representing the best expertise in their respective industries.

“In the next crisis, every second will count,” said Dan Cristian Ungureanu, Exercise Director of #LockedShields2025. “Locked Shields prepares nations to prevail when it matters most.”