North Carolina National Guard and Botswana cyber professionals exchange knowledge and defensive cybersecurity practices during Exercise Southern Accord 2026 at Gaborone Technical College in Gaborone, Botswana, Aug. 10-15, 2026. The cyber syndicate for this exercise is one of several multi-domain groups working through a notional threat scenario as part of the exercise’s joint planning process.
The North Carolina National Guard participates in international cyber exchanges and training initiatives that strengthen cybersecurity skills, knowledge, and capabilities. For Southern Accord 2026,t the cyber syndicate is designed to help Botswana cyber personnel strengthen their ability to protect military and national resources.
“We’re helping the cyber portion of the Botswana Defence Force become more educated and mature in the sense of defending resources for both the BDF and the country,” said U.S. Army Maj. Christopher Shannon, cyber syndicate lead. “We’re helping them develop game plans on how to respond to cyber events and protect their sovereignty and security," Shannon said.
The instruction draws from cybersecurity practices currently used by the NCNG. In North Carolina, cyber personnel conduct assessments and penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities and replicate techniques a potential adversary could use to access a network.
“The whole goal is to try to set up the BDF to emulate what the North Carolina National Guard does on the cyber side,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Setera, cyber threat intelligence analyst. "It also gives us a chance to see how other countries handle cyber threats that they are facing. Together we can strengthen and learn new skills that us as cyber professionals can implement."
In 2019, Botswana has a national Computer Security Incident Response Team that serves as an official point of contact for handling cybersecurity incidents affecting government departments, internet service providers, and other organizations. For Botswana participants in the exercise, the training provides an opportunity to learn from U.S. cyber professionals, integrate new techniques, and build upon existing skills.
“They helped reinforce things I already knew," said J.R. Nabalo, an incident responder with the Botswana Computer Incident Response Team. "I learned and will incorporate a technique they taught to consolidate information from different sources into one dashboard to help streamline my work."
While Botswana participants are developing and refining cyber capabilities, the exchange also provides professional development for the NCNG personnel conducting the training. For more than a decade, the North Carolina National Guard has trained and developed cyber professionals.
“Working with a partner nation the way we are makes our trainers even more successful and capable in what they do,” Shannon said. “We come here, we educate, we learn and interact with people from other cultures and nations, and that makes us even better trainers when we go back home to support our state and our country.”