Much like Thailand, we delivered two distinct phases of exercises in Laos with the goal of uplifting the incident response readiness of Critical Infrastructure organisations. Phase One was focussed on introducing key incident response concepts and foundational knowledge for participants who weren't necessarily from technical backgrounds. We believe it is important that the people in roles that contribute to, or support, an organisation's response to a cyber incident have the right knowledge and tools at their disposal to do so successfully. Being more familiar with incident response (and importantly, what good incident response looks like) can really help media teams, legal teams, and senior executives understand the important role they play in responding to an incident, and the ways in which they can significantly enhance an organisation's response.
Phase Two was focussed on ensuring the technical capability of participants was not only improved, but that they were left with a demonstrated skillset that means they are better able to understand - and respond to - a wide variety of cyber threats and incident types that network defenders face. Participants in Phase Two undertook a hands-on, guided exercise where they learnt about theory and knowledge, and then put it in to practice, responding as though they were dealing with a real incident.
In total, we had well over 300 people participate in this program! That's a pretty impressive achievement, and we are very proud to have played a small role in helping to mature and improve the incident response readiness of Laos based Critical Infrastructure organisations. We trust that participants now have the skills, knowledge, and appetite to continue learning about incident response, and continuing to refine and improve their skills.
Our heartfelt thanks go to the Cyber Security Department (CSD) of Laos, for enabling the seamless (and speedy) delivery of this program. We were able to complete delivery in a record short timeframe, thanks to the enthusiasm and on-the-ground support of our points of contact at CSD. CSD's trust, and willingness to work so closely with both the Australian Government and us, significantly contributed to the program's success.
We have two further projects we are delivering through the CCTCP and with DFAT - one in the South Pacific which is already underway, and one in Thailand again (following the success of the previous project delivered in Thailand, the fantastic participant feedback received, and the National Cyber Security Agency of Thailand's desire for more exercise based training). We are really looking forward to delivering both these programs.
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