National Cyber Drill 2025

The digital resilience of Seychelles took centre stage this week as the Computer Emergency Response Team of Seychelles (CERT-SC) successfully concluded the Seychelles National Cyber Drill 2025. Held at the Eden Bleu Hotel on the 17th and 18th of November, the event marked a significant milestone as the second national drill of its kind, and the first to be spearheaded under the CERT-SC banner.

 

 

The two-day event brought together 37 participants representing critical infrastructure from both the public and private sectors, uniting them under a common goal: to stress-test the nation’s readiness against the growing sophistication of cyber threats.

The event opened with a ceremony that underscored the strategic importance of cybersecurity in national development. In delivering the keynote address, Principal Secretary Benjamin Choppy of DICT highlighted the inseparable link between national progress and digital security stating that “Seychelles is looking forward towards being a digital powered nation, using technology to drive innovation and improve our public services to guarantee long-term benefits for our people. This digital revolution is the engine of our future, and yet its stability relies on the robustness of its cyber security underpinnings” 

This was reinforced by Dr. Kaleem Usmani, Head of CERT-MU, who spoke on the critical necessity of collaboration during a national crisis, noting that silence and silos are the enemies of effective incident response.

Setting the stage for the technical sessions, Mr. Krisl Gopal Head of CERT-SC delivered a presentation titled 'The Need for Cyber Drills'. He reminded the participants that in the current global landscape, a cyber incident is no longer a question of "if," but "when."

Mr. Gopal emphasised that the goal of the drill was to move beyond theory and build "muscle memory," allowing teams to learn how they truly react under pressure in a safe-to-fail environment. He noted that modern threats are complex and coordinated, arguing that "isolated defences will be defeated; a networked defence is our only path to national resilience." 

The 2025 drill was highly technical in nature. Facilitated by two expert consultants from CERT-MU, the sessions provided participants with hands-on experience in incident response.
The exercise simulated realistic attack scenarios, including phishing emails, ransomware and web application breaches, requiring teams to utilise security tools to analyse the data provided in virtual machines to answer the questions provided by the organisers. The objective was not only to identify technical weaknesses but also to improve communication and collaboration between the participants.

The initiative has been met with widespread approval from the local cybersecurity community. Feedback from the responders was overwhelmingly positive, with a unanimous call for exercises of this calibre to be organised on a more regular basis.

By identifying bottlenecks and testing collective response capabilities, CERT-SC aims to ensure that when the real thing happens, Seychelles responds not as separate entities, but as one cohesive national team.