The British Army, in the shape of the 13th Signal Regiment, held a large-scale training cyber exercise on the Dorset Innovation Park at the BattleLab facilities last week.

Major Mansel Thewlis shared that there were 34 teams, with over 350 exercise participants, drawn from the Field Army, Army Reserve, UK Law Enforcement, the NHS and most welcome partner nations from Europe to South America.

Furthermore, the Army generously asked X-Net to extend an invitation to local businesses and education providers to take part. Over 40 people signed up, and we saw mini-buses of students arrive from Bournemouth and Poole College, and Bournemouth University arrive and take part for three days.

The college granted permission for their students to be at the BattleLab for three days such was their commitment to this and trust.

There was also one university student on a Cyber Psychology course that took part in the technical exercise but also did some interviews with the students. She was able to take that insight for her course and it was great to see a different angle being taken too.

I wanted the participants to really feel the event, the seriousness of the training, the reasons why and what is at stake. I wanted them to be sat in the same room as uniformed British Army personnel, taking the daily briefings. I wanted to elevate this from what could have been a lab exercise back on campus, to something that was a field exercise, to feel like they have been parachuted into a different country to protect their infrastructure.

The students were using the very same cyber range as the professional soldiers and other teams. No matter their level, every step was a learning opportunity, even if their web server got defaced or a power station blew up.

I was particularly moved when I saw the more experienced university students teaming up with the college students, working together and really helping them out. I was told by the college staff that some of the university students present were also ex-college students.

This showed me real promising signs for the next generation. That was part of my goal in pulling this together, to show that the Innovation Park and the BattleLab can create a centre of excellence in training, across a wide variety of topics.

Dorset can be a place of high skill, high paid jobs, which leads to more sustainable hospitality and tourism outside of the peak seasons. The fact that the Estonian company, CybExer Technologies, are looking to base themselves here, and that Estonian is one of the most digital developed countries, shows we have something here in terms of a great place to build a business.

Now that the event has finished and I no longer need to buy over a hundred meal deals, reflecting back, I think this has been a huge success and win for all parties. I only reached out to my network on LinkedIn, so this could have been much bigger with a more concerted attempt to contact each and every college in Dorset. I probably pushed it to the limit in terms of numbers and avoiding any impact on the Army’s main event.

A big thank you to Major Andrew Hutchings and Major Mansel Thewlis for extending the invite for Army engagement. Thanks to Daz Preuss and the CybExer team for facilitating the use of their cyber range and sharing insight into how it all works. Also, thanks Counter Craft on their catch the flag system and coaching the students through it.

Let’s see what next year brings. There is the will, the appetite and the trust, which shouldn’t be lost.