The accelerating pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development is reshaping the landscape of cyber defense. This project investigates the potential of AI to enhance or even autonomously conduct cyber defense missions. Using the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence’s Locked Shields (LS) exercise as a real-world testing ground, we explore how emerging AI technologies can be evaluated and matured for operational use. This talk and demo presents ongoing research led by the CYD Campus and its partners, highlighting efforts to build an AI-driven Blue Team capable of supporting human defenders—or operating independently—to secure critical infrastructures. We demonstrate early-stage prototypes running in a cyber range, share insights from recent LS exercises, discuss the challenges and opportunities of AI in cyber defense, and outline the path toward fully autonomous cyber defense capabilities.

About the speakers

Dr. Roland Meier

Scientific Project Manager at armasuisse

Dr. Roland Meier is a scientific project manager at the Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse in Switzerland. His main research interests are the security of computer networks and automating cyber defense. Prior to joining armasuisse, Roland obtained his doctoral degree from ETH Zurich in 2022.
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Dimitri Francolla

Student at ETH Zürich

Dimitri Francolla is a cybersecurity student at ETH Zürich. He is currently working on his Master’s Thesis „Automating Cyber Defence” at the Cyber-Defence Campus where he is developing an LLM-driven network-traffic-based security tool for detection and response. His main academic interests are in the areas of cryptography, network security and AI-driven security.
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Siim Marvet

Master’s Student at EPFL

Siim Markus Marvet is a cyber security Master’s student at EPFL and an intern at Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse. He is currently writing his Master’s thesis under the supervision of Dr. Roland Meier in the field of automating cyber defense.
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