{"id":497,"date":"2026-09-23T17:48:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/?p=497"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:48:44","slug":"there-is-nothing-like-plan-b-globsecs-final-cyber-strategy-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"There Is Nothing Like Plan B: GLOBSEC\u2019s Final Cyber Strategy Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The third and final GLOBSEC Cyber Resilience Exercise has now been completed \u2014 and this year, there was, appropriately enough, nothing quite like Plan B<\/strong>. The UiT team Team Plan B<\/mark><\/em> <\/mark><\/strong>took the top position after two demanding days of strategic decision-making, rapid analysis and oral policy briefings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Team Plan B argues its policy response before the judges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Developed by <\/mark>Noelle van der Waag<\/mark><\/strong> <\/strong>and the <\/strong><\/mark>Cyber Security Institute (CSI)<\/mark><\/strong>, this year\u2019s scenario, Under the Surface<\/em>, <\/mark>placed students in a fictional but strikingly recognisable geopolitical crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scenario imagined a world in 2027 in which great-power competition, hybrid warfare, maritime insecurity, energy dependence and the race for critical minerals were becoming increasingly entangled. At its centre were two fictional states: Bjornland, a wealthy northern European state with Arctic and Antarctic interests, and Kalaharia, a highly developed Southern African state whose strategic importance extends from mining and maritime trade to Antarctic logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made the exercise particularly challenging was that there was no single crisis to solve. Students had to navigate several interconnected and cascading developments, where the most dramatic event was not necessarily the most consequential one. The challenge was to identify what mattered most, understand how different risks interacted, and decide where limited attention and resources should be directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over two days, the teams worked under considerable time pressure as the scenario evolved through new intelligence and escalating developments. They produced written policy briefs, developed competing response options, defended their choices before expert judges and revised their strategies as the situation changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise deliberately placed students in the position of a national security advisory team rather than asking them to provide a technical cyber response. The fictional Bjornland National Security Council had to consider questions ranging from attribution and critical infrastructure protection to diplomacy, public communication, international cooperation and the difficult trade-offs between immediate action and longer-term strategic interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise was designed and delivered by CSI<\/strong>, GLOBSEC\u2019s business partner, whose team developed the scenario, intelligence injects and competition format and managed the exercise throughout. Their ability to create a complex and evolving environment gave students an unusually demanding opportunity to move from discussing security crises in the classroom to making decisions inside one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the completion of Under the Surface<\/em>, GLOBSEC has now delivered its third and final Cyber Resilience Exercise<\/strong>. What began as one of the project\u2019s more experimental activities has become one of its most distinctive elements: a practical space where students from different academic and national backgrounds have to think together, decide under pressure and live with the consequences of their choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third and final GLOBSEC Cyber Resilience Exercise has now been completed \u2014 and this year, there was, appropriately enough, nothing quite like Plan B. The UiT team Team Plan B took the top position after two demanding days of strategic decision-making, rapid analysis and oral policy briefings. Developed by Noelle van der Waag and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[19,7],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyber-lab","tag-cyber-lab","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/globsec\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}