On October 23 and 24, 2024, the Inter-American Defense Board led an innovative cyber crisis management exercise in Guatemala City, the first of its kind for the country's Defense and Public Security sectors. The activity took place at the facilities of the Guatemalan Army's School of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, and was supported by the Cyber Defense Battalion of the Guatemalan Army's Communications Brigade.
This exercise is part of the IADB’s ongoing efforts to strengthen cybersecurity in the region and foster collaboration among its member countries. The initiative brought together 33 participants from different national institutions, mainly from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior of Guatemala, who were guided through three realistic and progressive simulation scenarios. The scenarios, developed with the technical support of the IADB, reflected critical cyber challenges for the Guatemalan context, using advanced artificial intelligence tools to generate specific threat injectors for each situation.
The IADB coordination facilitated productive interaction among participants, highlighting the relevance of these activities in strategic preparation for decision-making in the cyber domain. The results of the satisfaction survey conducted at the end of the exercise show that 97% of participants were extremely satisfied or very satisfied with the experience, highlighting the success of the event and the value of careful IADB planning.
This pioneering exercise, which responds to the cybersecurity needs of Guatemala, underlines the Inter-American Defense Board's ability to support similar initiatives in other countries in the region, promoting greater cooperation and development in cyberdefense for the benefit of collective security.
