{"id":9819,"date":"2024-06-15T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=9819"},"modified":"2024-11-20T17:09:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:09:45","slug":"the-maryland-army-national-guard-critical-to-validation-of-other-cyber-protection-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2024\/06\/15\/the-maryland-army-national-guard-critical-to-validation-of-other-cyber-protection-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maryland Army National Guard critical to validation of other cyber protection teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Capt. Michael Fedner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. \u2013 The Maryland Army National Guard\u2019s Cyber Protection Team 169 conducted a validation exercise or \u201cVALEX\u201d for four CPTs from the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard concurrently during Cyber Shield 2024 at the Virginia State National Guard Reservation from May 31 to June 15, 2024.

Cyber Shield is an annual National Guard exercise ultimately designed to provide valuable experience in protecting cyber networks and to validate CPTs on their mission essential tasks or METs making them prepared for upcoming mobilizations. The VALEX coincided with Cyber Shield, and this is where CPT169 left their mark.

\u201cThe 169 has validated or revalidated over 90% of the National Guard\u2019s 10 other CPTs since 2018,\u201d said Maryland Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mosi Winder, CPT 169 cyber operations planner. \u201cThe 169 looks to partner with the Army Reserve to assist with their future validations.\u201d

The CPT 169 applied their years of experience to redevelop previously used cyber training ranges to simulate realistic online environments and infrastructure critical for the VALEX. The Maryland soldiers divided their team into various sections to serve as network administrators, network owners, and threat emulation teams for each CPT validation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe are fortunate to have participated in the VALEX, especially this year in having validated four CPTs, one of which included our first Air National Guard team,\u201d said Maryland Army National Guard Maj. Travis Lee, commander of CPT 169.

One of those validations included an Air National Guard CPT, a first for the 169th.

\u201cThe Air National Guard uses different equipment with similar capabilities, but we developed a way to make the systems \u201ctalk\u201d in order to complete VALEX,\u201d said Winder.

Soldiers and airmen of the 102nd Cyberspace Operations Squadron from the Rhode Island Air National Guard, CPT 177 from the Minnesota Army National Guard, CPT 176 comprised of soldiers from the Illinois and Wisconsin Army National Guard, and CPT 175, comprising of soldiers from the Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky Army National Guards were all validated by the CPT 169.

\u201cWe wanted to push those CPTs to their limits,\u201d said Maryland Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Samantha Carrera, CPT 169 network analyst. \u201cThey all responded quickly and efficiently to every challenge they faced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each CPT was given various scenarios and were required to overcome injects provided by the CPT 169. Every evaluated CPT responded appropriately for each potential threat and earned high marks from the evaluators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCPT 169 looks forward to continuing the legacy of validation during future exercises,\u201d said Lee said. \u201cIt is our honor and privilege to represent the State of Maryland, the Maryland Army National Guard, and the 91st Cyber Brigade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Capt. Michael Fedner VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. \u2013 The Maryland Army National Guard\u2019s Cyber Protection Team 169 conducted a validation exercise or \u201cVALEX\u201d for four CPTs from the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard concurrently during Cyber Shield 2024 at the Virginia State National Guard Reservation from May 31 to June 15, 2024.  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9819"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9836,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions\/9836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}