Leonardo‘s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) convened cyber security experts on Dec. 13 in Rome for a Cyber Shield exercise, as the company said that cyber attacks on company assets were up 110 percent between 2016 and this year. 

Leonardo said that the “exponential” growth in such attacks has put a premium on “expert-level training” to deter and counter such attacks.

Cyber Shield 2018 was the second Leonardo CERT exercise and featured a group of cyber criminals gathering data gathered by a drone. 

Twenty-one four-member teams, including military, corporate, governmental, and financial representatives from three countries in Europe and the United States, participated. Cyber Shield 2018 featured 50 exercises, divided into 10 levels of difficulty, that ran the gamut from steganography and mobile and drone forensics to software reverse-engineering, password cracking and log analysis. 

“The Cyber Shield event helps operators prepare to protect the technological and intellectual property of their organizations, both civil and military, as well as fostering collaboration and a shared approach to security,” Leonardo said in a statement. “Leonardo considers the protection of corporate data to be a priority in achieving its objectives and those of its stakeholders.”