Featured image courtesy of Idaho National Guard
ITS hosted its annual Cyber Discovery event in partnership with the Idaho Army National Guard. Initiated in 2022, this exercise has evolved over three years into a joint training operation involving state and local government entities, college students, and military personnel from the Army and Air National Guards across Idaho and the United States.
Cyber Discovery is now an integral component of a strategic initiative by the State of Idaho, known as Operation Cyber Idaho. The mission is to bolster Idaho’s cyber resilience through Readiness Training, Cyber Infrastructure Services, and Collective Defense.
As part of its collaborative training efforts, Cyber Discovery aims to validate Idaho’s capability to defend against extensive hostile cyber campaigns. During the exercise, aggressors (Red Team) implement controlled tactics against state infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities. Concurrently, Idaho defenders (Blue Team) concentrate on threat detection, tracking, and incident response. This year’s exercise successfully coordinated 94 participants from nine external organizations to rigorously assess the Idaho Cyber Resilience Operation Center (ICROC), efficiently integrate talent, and verify threat detection and response protocols.
