Photo By Sgt. Haden Tolbert | Members of the Oklahoma National Guard’s Defensive Cyber Operations Element placed...... read more read more
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Members of the Oklahoma National Guard’s Defensive Cyber Operations Element brought home a big win in June at this year’s Netwars competition hosted at the Army National Guard Professional Education Center at Camp Robinson, Arkansas.
The DCOE secured the top spot in Netwars, a two-day computer hacking competition described as a digital capture the flag held during the National Guard’s annual Cyber Shield exercise. Cyber Shield is the Department of Defense’s largest unclassified cyber defense exercise involving approximately 800 National Guard cyber specialists as well as law enforcement, legal, government and corporate partners from across the country.
“Winning provides confidence and pride to the team,” said Maj. Danny Slusarchuk, DCOE team chief. “It offers notoriety that translates into partnerships for Oklahoma. It is much easier for us to invite state cyber partners like the 137th Special Operations Wing, Oklahoma Management Enterprise Services, and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation if they know their people will be working with some of the best.”
The 2022 DCOE team was composed of members from the Oklahoma National Guard, OSBI and OMES.
Sgt. 1st Class James Johnson, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the DCOE, said working with partner agencies during exercises like Cyber Shield builds cohesion and interoperability before an emergency happens.
“If there is an emergency, you want to know who they are,” Johnson said. “You want to know what their capabilities are. We spent a lot of time building relationships, so we knew how they operated and what their capabilities were and where their shortcomings were so when something does happen, it's an easy transition into working together.”
Slusarchuk said Oklahoma’s DCOE has attended multiple Cyber Shield competitions over the past few years, each year showcasing their skills and cybersecurity capabilities. He added that attending exercises like Cyber Shield helps the DCOE continually sharpen their skills as new threats and adversaries emerge online.
“Adversaries only need to be right once to be effective,” said Slusarchuk. “Cyber defenders need to maintain disciplined success. In cybersecurity, often there are no second chances--stakes are as high as protecting our freedoms and way of life.”
Slusarchuk, a former infantryman turned cyber warrior, said cybersecurity is an ever-growing field not only for the military but the civilian side as well--a sentiment echoed by Johnson.
“It's a real battle space,” Johnson said. “It's growing constantly. The field changes constantly, so if you'd like to be challenged, cybersecurity is a huge field that you can go into. If it was an option when I got in 20 years ago, I would have done it.”
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2022 15:34 |
| Story ID: | 426958 |
| Location: | OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 146 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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