NATO exercises cyber defences as threat grows

FILE PHOTO: Military specialists work during the NATO Cyber Coalition exercise in Tartu, Estonia, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

TARTU, Estonia: In a nondescript brick building on the snowy edge of Estonia’s second city Tartu, soldiers in camouflage tap silently at computers. They are troops manning the 21st century’s front line.  

With its harsh lighting and partitioned desks, the room could be any soulless office. But this is NATO’s “cyber range” and these men and women are running the alliance’s biggest cyber warfare exercise, an electronic defensive drill dubbed Cyber Coalition 2018.