ITU National Cybersecurity Exercises (​Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 21-23 September 2026)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organizing a three-day hands-on cybersecurity exercise in Dushanbe, aimed at building national capacities in cybersecurity and the protection of critical information infrastructure.
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Event Context:
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In the face of growing cyber threats, the ability to rapidly detect and neutralize incidents is a key factor in national security. These exercises simulate the environment of a typical organization with a full IT infrastructure cycle (network gateways, internal services, DMZ, and centralized monitoring). The core methodological feature of the event is that the teams' success in mitigating attacks on Day 3 directly depends on the quality of the monitoring configuration and telemetry collection they set up themselves on Day 2.
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Exercise Objectives:

• Practice hands-on skills in configuring centralized monitoring and event collection (utilizing Elastic Stack, pfSense, etc.).
  
• Respond to realistic cyberattack scenarios: data encryption (ransomware simulation), data exfiltration, mail and FTP server compromises, and C2 (Command and Control) traffic detection. 
  
• Enhance teamwork, role distribution, and coordination skills during active security incidents.
  
• ​ Foster a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to cybersecurity operations.
  

Target Audience:
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Information security specialists, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT/CSIRT), technical staff, and engineers from government agencies, national regulators, telecom operators, and IT companies.
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