05.06.2025.
National Command and Staff Exercise Cyber Tesla 2025
Cyber Tesla 2025, a three-day national command and staff exercise organized by the Telecommunications and IT Department (J-6) of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, has been conducted at the IT and Signals Training Centre in Gornji Milanovac.
The exercise involved members of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence, along with private and public sector employees occupying information security positions. In a specially equipped lab, they practised offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace, working in different teams.The exercise focused on identifying cyber threats to telecommunications and information system. The trainees responded to the threats following a scenario, preceded by a simulated information exchange process.
According to Colonel Zoran Perišić, the head of the Information Security Centre at Exercise Cyber Tesla 2025, in addition to the general exercise objective - to improve defence capabilities and strengthen cooperation between the military and civilian sectors, there are other, specific objectives – to train cyber teams to respond to cyber incidents and carry out cyber operations, improve training infrastructure, and test SOPs.
— The scenarios that trainees play out are very realistic and involve multiple cyber-attacks occurring simultaneously, including hacking attacks, data exfiltration and phishing. What is specific about this exercise is that AI was used for the first time to generate specific content in accordance with the exercise scenario. Exercises like this are very important for the Serbian Armed Forces, because they improve our cyber defence capabilities and cooperation with the civilian and private sectors in protecting the cyberspace of the Republic of Serbia, said Colonel Perišić.During the simulated situations, defence teams execute tasks in accordance with standard operating procedures, i.e. they detect attacks and restore the system to its original state. In addition to general and special tools, the exercise also uses specific statistical methods to detect potential computer network anomalies, as well as AI, which is of great help.
The leader of the Security Incident Response Team, Second Lieutenant Milan Kojović, says that this command and staff exercise has been a great and important experience for him, where he could demonstrate his skills in dealing with "realistic and technically demanding scenarios simulating various types of cyber-attacks."— Through teamwork, cooperation and communication, we have learned how to identify security threats and how to use standard procedures in high pressure situations — says Second Lieutenant Kojović, adding that he has managed to broaden his knowledge of information security through interaction with colleagues from other units and institutions.
Cyber Tesla exercises have been carried out since 2016 with the aim of improving information security system and protection of military and civilian infrastructure through strengthening defence capabilities.
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