NATO launches largest cyber exercise to test its network security

In an effort to test its defenses against cyberattacks and ensure it keeps pace with evolving threats, NATO launched a multinational cybersecurity exercise on its networks. 

On Tuesday the organization went live with the exercise, dubbed "Cyber Coalition 2014," to test its systems and gauge whether the security specialists on its team "are fully up to the task," Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges at NATO, said in a recent release. 

The exercise involved more than 400 "technical, government and cyber experts" operating from various alliance locations and partner nations. 

The event tested the speed of sharing threat intelligence in order for nations to coordinate defenses against "a series of cyberincidents" involving the NATO mission network. Individuals from academia and industry served as observers.