The Georgia Technology Authority (GTA), in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Defense, recently held Cyber Dawg 2025, a live-fire cybersecurity exercise. The event took place from September 22 to 26 at the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center in Augusta. This year, participation increased by 23 percent compared to 2024, with 129 participants from 33 organizations.
The exercise featured blue teams made up mostly of state agency employees who worked to defend their networks across 11 simulated agency environments. Nearly two-thirds of these participants were new to Cyber Dawg, reflecting the event’s focus on developing cybersecurity talent within the state.
A red team simulated a sophisticated nation-state threat actor, using tactics such as reconnaissance, social engineering, exploitation, covert command-and-control, lateral movement, and data exfiltration. Blue teams had to quickly detect and respond to these threats while being supported by a fusion cell for intelligence gathering, a gold team of subject matter experts, and a range team responsible for maintaining the technical environment.
The primary goal of Cyber Dawg 2025 was to improve detection and analysis skills under pressure and encourage collaboration among agencies. According to organizers, “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.”
