CAMP DAWSON, W.Va. ­­– As the late July heat continues to scorch, cyber Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and civilians assembled in the foothills of a remote training base in West Virgina to hone their skills to build an effective defensive cyber force.

Every year, the Army Cyber Protection Brigade (CPB) plans, prepares, and executes Exercise Grungy Zion (EGZ) to simulate a joint task force employing defensive cyber operations across multiple echelons. From July 22 to August 3, 2024, the CPB deployed teams to Camp Dawson, W.Va., Orlando, Fla., and Fort Eisenhower, Ga. to participate in this exercise.

For the CPB task force staff and the brigade’s subordinate battalions, this was an opportunity to validate how information is received, managed and communicated to the Cyber Protection Teams (CPTs) that were operationally engaged in the training scenario.

“Exercise Grungy Zion is the Cyber Protection Brigade’s annual certification exercise,” said Col. Christopher Stauder, CPB commander. “Historically, this exercise has been focused on certifying mission elements, cyber protection teams, and battalion-size task forces. This year the CPB took a giant step forward in certifying the brigade headquarters as a maneuver element and by incorporating multiple partners into this exercise.”

This year’s exercise was the first time the Army’s sister service cyber elements participated in EGZ, working alongside their Army counterparts. Some of the partners included elements from Marine Corps Forces Cyber, Navy mission elements, Multi Domain Task Force mission elements, Army Reserve and National Guard CPTs, and signal professionals from the 60th Signal Battalion (OCO).

“Working joint with the Army during EGZ has been exceptional,” said U.S. Marine Corps Cpt. Michael Goff of 652 CPT, U.S. Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Battalion. “This is the first time my team had an Army crew integrated with us. It has been a huge success, because they are proficient in all the tools, allowing us to achieve success much faster than normal.”

EGZ also demonstrated how the advancement of technology forces cyber elements to continuously transform how they train and fight to become a more competent force. This includes protection of mission-essential information as well as networks supporting infrastructure, logistics, and communication between joint and multinational allies and partners.

“It feels nice to be hands-on developing and learning new skills,” said Spc. Andrew Stout, 155 CPT, 1st Cyber Battalion, CPB. “Cyber is important, because it provides a broad range of assets and technical support to help the Army complete its mission all over the world.”

In the past, the exercise has taken place on Fort Eisenhower and Camp Dawson; each year new remote locations participate in the training. This is the fourth year the CPB has hosted EGZ and due to its success, plans to continue the exercise for many years to come.

“EGZ is successful because it stresses our units to see what operational load we can handle,” said 1st Lt. Luke Meyer, 155 CPT, 1st Cyber Battalion, CPB. “It measures how we respond in real time, our processes, and hunting capability to react to any cyber threat that might pop up.”

By Lloyd Bedford

ARLINGTON, Va. — Military and civilian leaders from across the Army Cyber enterprise joined their expert partners from military, industry, academic, government and media organizations to discuss the ever-evolving cyber landscape and how military forces can develop and employ information advantage in cyberspace, at the Association of the United States Army’s “Hot Topic: Cyber and Information Advantage” event in Arlington, July 2, 2024.

Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commanding general of U.S. Army Cyber Command led the day of panel discussions and remarks that was co-hosted by ARCYBER and the Army Combined Arms Center.

“This is all for the purpose of enabling commanders to visualize, decide and synchronize the effects that they could have within the (cyber) dimension,” said Barrett during her opening remarks.

She emphasized that to succeed in that dimension requires looking at every phase of the continuum of conflict. “If you think you’re going to deliver insights to a commander about the information dimension, and you’re not looking at it in the competition phase, whatever you are delivering in crisis, in conflict, probably will fall short,” she said.

Among the other senior Army Cyber leaders participating in the daylong event were Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower, and Lydia Snider, advisor on foreign malign influence to the ARCYBER commanding general.

Snider provided insights during a panel on the effects of social media on information advantage activities, highlighting its prevalence and growing impact on global affairs. Social media has removed borders, she said, allowing our adversaries to get into the hearts and minds of Americans. To combat their efforts, we must ask the right questions about their intentions and increase messaging about democratic ideals and values.

With information proving to be a critical instrument in influencing global affairs, the Army and its Department of Defense, allied, industry, government and other partners are focused on ensuring we are positioning ourselves to combat our adversaries on all fronts. During the last panel of the day and a media roundtable following the event, Stanton talked about how thorough planning with specific objectives is vital to getting commanders’ support for cyber operations, and the standup of three theater information advantage detachments, or TIADs, to provide broad expertise in that planning.

“We, in the Army, are promoting the theatre information advantage detachment,” said Stanton. “That is the element that is going to do the planning across our ability to influence, inform, protect, attack and support decision making that will drive tangible and measurable outcomes.”

“The TIAD has to do all detailed planning, they have to do the data collection, they have to get the approvals in order to execute mission, and then they have to do the appropriate assessment of effectiveness after the fact,” Stanton said.

Col. Bryan Babich, director of the Army Mission Command Center of Excellence, said that as with as with other cyber operations, the success of the TIADs will depend on preparation, initiative and relationship building between the Army and its partners.

“You can’t wait until crisis or conflict to start,” said Babich at the roundtable. “That is why it is so important with the TIADs and how they are forward posturing and working with partners.”

By SSG Kyle Alvarez

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Almost 1,000 participants flooded the Virginia National Guard State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach for the longest-running and largest Department of Defense cyber defense exercise May 31 to June 15, 2024.

Cyber Shield is an annual National Guard event that hosts National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers, Airmen, civilian cyber professionals and international partners worldwide.

A number of National Guard State Partnership Program countries, including Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Lithuania, Romania, the Republic of Georgia and Kosovo joined this year’s cyber shield exercise.

“The importance is international outreach,” said North Carolina Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Todd Webster, a cybersecurity team leader. “Not only are we able to help cyber developing companies and countries, but we’re also able to provide outreach across the globe.”

Cyber forces were brought together in Virginia Beach to develop, train and test their limits. Those involved had the opportunity to attend rigorous courses, conduct cyber exercises, and test their skills in this year’s NetWars competition.

Cyber Shield held training classes tailored to various skill sets, including Pen+, Security+, Linux+ and CISSP.

“Our overall goal for Cyber Shield is to train and learn on the cyber domain,” said North Carolina Army National Guardsman Lt. Col. Brian Dodd, Cyber Shield’s defensive cyber team chief. “We learn how to better respond to incidents in the cyber domain and how to better react to the problems that we see.”

This event was designed to increase participants’ ability to infiltrate, defend and enhance the cybersecurity network for global defense measures.

“We continue to see increased severity and increased frequency of cyber attacks regularly,” Dodd said. “There are more threats than there have ever been in the cyber domain, so we need to come to an event like this and train together.”

By Hannah Tarkelly, 449th Combat Aviation Brigade