BRUSSELS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- NATO held a major cyber exercise, Exercise Cyber Coalition 16, at the alliance's cyber center in Tartu, Estonia, the organization said in a statement on Thursday.
Twenty-seven NATO nations and partners, as well as the European Union cyber defense staff participated in the exercise from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.
The five-day training event aims to test the alliance's cyber defense capability, using the controlled and virtual scenarios.
"NATO has reaffirmed its defensive mandate, recognizing cyberspace as a domain of operations in which NATO must defend itself as effectively as it does in the air, on land, and at sea," said Commander Robert Hoar, the exercise director.
NATO allies agreed at the Wales Summit in 2014 that cyber defense is part of NATO's core task of collective defense.
