The CrowdStrike Falcon® cybersecurity platform played a critical role in helping the joint Germany-Singapore team score highest at Locked Shields 2025. This achievement is a powerful validation of the Falcon platform and the strength of CrowdStrike’s AI-native approach to security.
Locked Shields, organized annually by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), is the world’s largest and most complex international cyber defense exercise. The 2025 event involved more than 4,000 participants from 41 nations.
This exercise simulates the most sophisticated nation-state and eCrime cyberattacks that businesses face today. Over a three-week period, 17 multinational blue teams faced over 9,000 real-time simulated cyberattacks targeting simulated national infrastructure including power grids, 5G networks, satellite systems, and battle management platforms. Teams were tested on legal strategy, crisis communication, disinformation, and decision-making under pressure.
The Germany-Singapore team relied on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform to defend against these threats, outperforming other elite cyber teams and achieving the best result in Germany’s 15-year participation in Locked Shields.
CrowdStrike’s Role in Team Germany-Singapore
The Germany-Singapore team was composed of experts from the German Bundeswehr, Singapore’s Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS), and additional security agencies from Germany and Singapore. Onsite support was provided by three CrowdStrike engineers, two from Germany, and one from Singapore, and a CrowdStrike Falcon® Counter Adversary Operations Elite analyst. CrowdStrike Falcon® Adversary OverWatch™ also provided remote assistance during the event.
For the past two years, the German team, led by the Bundeswehr, has used the Falcon platform as their primary protection technology during Locked Shields. This year, the Bundeswehr’s cyber defense experts demonstrated clear progress in how they, along with the broader Germany-Singapore team, used the platform.
Locked Shields 2025 brought new innovations to the cyber battlefield. These included a new cloud segment, quantum computing topics in the Strategic Decision-Making track, and AI challenges across all main tracks. The exercise created an environment in which the pace and volume of situational changes forced blue teams to adapt, shift their priorities, and make impactful decisions.
“This year’s fictional scenario reflects pressing global realities, including geopolitical tensions, violations of sovereignty, and large-scale cyberattacks,” the CCDCOE states on its website. “The 2025 storyline has expanded to include additional fictional nations and wider regions, underlining how cyber defence cooperation must transcend borders in an increasingly interconnected digital world.”
The Germany-Singapore team scored highest with the help of the Falcon platform and CrowdStrike support. The CrowdStrike team helped them prepare for the exercise and served as consultants throughout to ensure the desired protections were in place when it counted. The Falcon Counter Adversary Operations team assisted in identifying and attributing modern attacks performed by the red team, informing a swift and informed incident response.
Participants and operational team members regularly highlighted the speed, exceptionally high detection rate, and aggressive response of the Falcon platform against simulated cyberattacks.
CrowdStrike’s Global Presence at Locked Shields 2025
CrowdStrikers from around the world provided support and expertise to 12 countries across six of the 17 multinational blue teams participating in the exercise, including countries represented among the top three highest-scoring teams.
As participants on various national teams, CrowdStrike experts worked with defense agencies and military cyber commands across multiple countries. For example, some of our experts worked directly with cyber defense commands from participating countries such as Romania, Portugal, and the Republic of Moldova, contributing their cybersecurity expertise to the exercise.
While some teams like Germany-Singapore used the Falcon platform as their primary protection technology, CrowdStrike’s contribution to other teams focused on providing expert knowledge and hands-on operational support. This diverse involvement highlights the importance of international cooperation and knowledge sharing in strengthening collective defense capabilities.
These collaborative efforts across borders, and between public and private sectors, represent the kind of partnerships needed to address today’s most complex cybersecurity challenges, setting the foundation for stronger global cyber defense.
A Path to Stronger Global Cyber Defense
The Germany-Singapore team’s results demonstrate CrowdStrike’s ability to stop breaches in real time, defend critical infrastructure, and deliver unmatched protection at speed and scale. Further, this success underscores the strength of international cooperation and the strategic value of public-private partnerships in defending against modern cyber threats.
Exercises like Locked Shields are essential for sharpening the collective readiness of international security teams. This is an excellent example of how trained professionals and capable tools lead to outstanding results. Industry partners like CrowdStrike play a critical role in supporting operational resilience and innovation in global cyber defense.
Additional Resources
