Defence Cyber Marvel is an annual competition in which teams from Defence, Government agencies, industry partners, and other nations, compete for the top spot in a challenging environment. Participants are tasked with stopping potential cyber-attacks against allied forces in a real-world scenario.
In this year's competition (DCM3) three doctoral students from Loughborough University’s Department of Computer Science were among those in Tallinn, Estonia, to take part.
The largest cyber exercise held in Europe, and one of the largest worldwide, with participants from 17 countries (both NATO and allied), participants must apply their knowledge and skills to tackle various technical challenges designed to simulate the reality of cyber warfare.
As part of Loughborough University’s support of this exercise, staff from the Department of Computer Science are involved in a study to assess the effectiveness and validity of the overall exercise. But, more importantly, participation has allowed our doctoral students to gain experience in:
- Managing a red-team development team
- Presenting on novel AI driven cyber security tools written by one of the students to senior multinational audiences
- Running and building elements of a cyber range
- Serving as tech-lead on a joint civilian/military red team
- Providing assessment and moderation of intelligence assessment documents produced by exercising troops.
- Attending FCDO briefings and networking events
The Department is proud to support peace and security, and is pleased to give Loughborough PhD students the chance to engage with important partners and stakeholders from day one.