The Georgia Technology Authority (GTA), in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Defense, recently completed Cyber Dawg 2025, a week-long cybersecurity exercise. The event took place from September 22 to 26 at the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center in Augusta. This year’s exercise included 129 participants from 33 organizations, representing a 23 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Participants were organized into blue teams made up mostly of state agency employees. These teams operated within simulated environments designed to reflect real state agency networks and were responsible for defending against continuous cyberattacks. Notably, almost two-thirds of the blue team members were participating in Cyber Dawg for the first time.
The red team acted as adversaries, using tactics modeled after those of advanced nation-state threat actors. Their attacks ranged from reconnaissance and social engineering to network exploitation, covert command-and-control operations, lateral movement within networks, and data exfiltration. Blue teams were tasked with quickly identifying threats, validating alerts, and escalating reports while under pressure. Support was provided by an intelligence fusion cell, a gold team of subject matter experts, and technical staff managing the exercise environment.
The main objective was to improve detection and analysis skills during active threats. The exercise also emphasized teamwork and coordination between agencies. According to organizers, Cyber Dawg 2025 provided “concrete improvements” in defensive capabilities.
“Cyber Dawg 2025 reaffirmed Georgia’s commitment to practical, hands-on training. By simulating realistic adversary behavior in a safe environment, the state identified actionable improvements that will directly strengthen Georgia’s defensive posture,” said GTA representatives.
