Lithuania hosts intl cyber security exercise to improve crisis management in EU

VILNIUS – Lithuania on Monday hosted the international crisis management exercise BlueOLEX 2022 aimed to enhance EU-wide readiness for joint management of large-scale cyber incidents and crises.

The exercise co-organized by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) involved testing and further development of Cyber Crisis Liaison Organization Network (CyCLONe) operational procedures, the ministry said in a press release.

“Lithuania has been actively involved in improving EU crisis management procedures. As we are organizing the exercise this time, we have designed the 4th edition to further contribute to a common coordination of large-scale cyber incidents and crises. The threat of cyber incidents is growing every year. Therefore, we need to be prepared to respond to it,” the press release quoted Deputy Defense Minister Margiris Abukevicius as saying.

According to the ministry, senior representatives of 23 EU member states, the European Commission and ENISA took part in the exercise.

“The 2022 exercise involved a specific component: not only representatives from EU member states but also EU institutions, agencies and bodies were invited to train together and improve the crisis response cooperation,” the ministry pointed out.

The Cyber Crisis Liaison Organization Network consists of cybersecurity and crisis response executives from EU member states, European Commission and ENISA.

It was founded in 2020 in order to raise the general level of situational awareness, information sharing and to improve the coordinated response across the European Union in the event of a large-scale cyber incident or crisis.