ENCS held a Red Team – Blue Team (RTBT) training from June 7 to 9, 2021, in The Hague for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. With this training, the Ministry intends to raise cyber security awareness and knowledge throughout the Dutch water sector. This will allow the sector to be more effective in identifying risks, applying defensive measures and responding to possible incidents in ICS/SCADA environments. The training is part of a broader program to increase cyberresilience in the watersector.
On the first and second days, the trainees could learn about industrial control systems, the risks to them and how to protect. They prepared for the third day by learning about the training environment, identifying defensive measures and preparing monitoring tools. On the third day, they were divided into the red and blue teams. As the red team attacked the blue team’s systems, the blue team detected these attacks, discussed mitigation actions and tried to repel the red team.
“The Red Team – Blue Team training of ENCS is truly unique in Western Europe and allows participants to gain hands-on experience with both the defensive and offensive sides of an attack on their systems. This training in particular also offered the Ministry a special opportunity to bring together people from the sector who would usually not encounter each other and allow them to share experiences and strengthen their network.”
Jeroen van den Berg
Programmasecretaris “Versterken cyberweerbaarheid in de watersector”
The ENCS RTBT training provides organizations the opportunity to train their teams to identify, understand and respond to real-world attacks. The red team acts as an attacker whereas the blue team acts and operates as defender. But in the end they both learn what to expect from attackers and to prepare for it. With ENCS, this happens in a unique cyber-physical environment simulating real systems and networks of grid operators.
We offer this unique training approach and infrastructure to our members and key stakeholders. We are proud that the Ministry chose to partner with us. If you want to train your organization, you are most welcome to reach out to us.