Photo By Staff Sgt. Jasmine McCarthy | An Air National Guardsman and a Czech Republic military member collaborate together...... read more read more
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Hidden within a discreet concrete building, teams from various states and countries collaborate across screens and keyboards for this year’s exercise Cyber Shield 2025 scheduled from May 30, 2025 - June 13, 2025. In a collaborative effort, 28 states and 15 state partners came together to share best practices and lessons with one another on how to defend the cyber front. One cyber team, composed of Air and Army National Guardsmen from Nebraska and Texas, work closely together with their shared state partner, Czech Republic.
Czech Republic became Texas’s and Nebraska’s state partner in 1993 through the National Guard State Partnership Program. The program involves cooperation between both militaries, cultural exchanges and shared training. Exercises like Cyber Shield allow both state partners and their respective states to utilize their knowledge to train for react to real-world scenarios.
1st Lt. Karina Abella, a cyber operations officer from the 72nd Brigade Combat Team with the Texas Army National Guard, is working alongside members of the Czech Republic cyber team. She believes it is important to participate in this exercise and work with different units, so we can understand the reach of cyber.
“It’s important to work with our state partners, because we do not know everything that is out there,” said Abella. “Bringing in our state partners through the program allows us to understand how they operate in the cyber world and helps us build alliances.”
This is Abella’s third year participating in Cyber Shield; first as a white cell member then as a blue team member before finding herself as a team lead this year. Staff Sgt. Alejandro Hernandez, a digital network exploitation analyst, with the 273rd Cyberspace Operations Squadron , Texas Air National Guard also participated in the exercise.
“I believe it’s important to work with everyone because we should be able to work with our partners across different fields,” said Hernandez. “I have learned that it takes a lot of work to put something like this exercise together, and there are different roles and expertise that come together to make this happen.”
Cyber Shield is the longest running and largest Department of Defense cyber exercise. This year, approximately 900 National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Guardians and civilian cyber professionals from around the world gather to participate in both training and a cyber defense exercise. Additionally, 15 countries within the State Partnership Program collaborated to share a unified approach on defending against cyber threats.
“I recommend that for those who would like to come and do an exercise like this, they should do it as it is a good experience,” said Hernandez. “In the future, I believe that warfare is going to take a different approach towards cyber, so we should always be ready.”
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2025 08:50 |
| Story ID: | 500303 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 423 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Texas and the Czech Republic train together against global cyber threats, by SSG Jasmine McCarthy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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