NATO on Tuesday (26 November 2013) launched a three-day cyber defence exercise “Cyber Coalition 2013” which will test the Alliance’s ability to defend its networks from attacks. "Cyber attacks are a daily reality and they are growing in sophistication and complexity,” said Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges at NATO. "NATO has to keep pace with this evolving threat and Cyber Coalition 2013 will allow us to fully test our systems and procedures to effectively defend our networks - today and in the future."

With more than 30 nations involved, this is the largest exercise of its kind in terms of participating countries. Some 300 cyber defence experts will participate from their home countries and partner nations. An additional 80 experts will work from the military training facility in Tartu, Estonia, which is the host nation for this year’s exercise. Participants are drawn from national armed forces, law enforcement and relevant ministries. Experts are also being drawn from civilian and military staff at NATO headquarters.

The aim of the exercise is to train technical personnel and their leadership and to test the ability of Allies and partners to coordinate and cooperate their actions in warding off multiple simulated cyber attacks. This is the sixth run of the exercise. Five partner non-NATO nations, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland are participating in the exercise alongside experts from the 28 NATO member nations.

New Zealand and the European Union have observer status.