The annual crisis management exercise BlueOLEX 2022 co-organized by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) took place in Lithuania on the 7th of November.
Senior representatives of 23 EU member states, the European Commission and ENISA came to Vilnius for that purpose.
The exercise is designed to enhance EU-wide readiness for joint management of large-scale cyber incidents and crises: testing and further development of Cyber Crisis Liaison Organisation Network (CyCLONe) operational procedures.
Although the BlueOLEX this year was held for the fourth time, today was the second time the high-level executives from nearly the entire EU met in person since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lithuania has been actively involved in improving EU crisis management procedures. As we are organising 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, said Vice Minister Margiris Abukevičius.
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 Cyber Crisis Liaison Organisation 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.
