The National Intelligence Service said on the 26th that it took part in the international cyber defense exercise "Locked Shields 2026," organized by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, for five days starting Apr. 20.
Locked Shields is an exercise to strengthen the cyber crisis response cooperation system among 39 member countries of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and has been held annually since 2010. Korea is participating for the sixth consecutive year and in 2022 became the first country in Asia to join the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence as a full member.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) formed a joint team with Hungary this year. The two sides have discussed ways to cooperate following "APEX 2025," an Indo-Pacific regional international cyber exercise held in Korea last year under the leadership of the NIS.
The domestic team partnering with Hungary consisted of about 170 experts selected from 47 institutions and corporations, including the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Presidential Security Service, Korean National Police Agency, the military, and Financial Security Institute.
The exercise proceeds with a strategic component that evaluates intergovernmental cooperation and policy elements, and a technical component that defends against real-time attacks. In particular, the strategic exercise incorporated issues related to responding to "fake news," which has emerged during the recent war in the Middle East, to strengthen real-world capabilities.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) also plans to provide regular technical sharing and refresher training to participants to continually build practical capabilities.
Kim Chang-seop, the third deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said, "This exercise will serve as an opportunity to raise the nation's cyber security level by a notch by bringing together the best capabilities of the public, private, and military sectors."