Hong Kong authorities have organized a three-day cybersecurity drill from Thursday to Saturday to enhance the special administrative region’s overall digital protection and cyber resilience.

Entering its third edition, the Hong Kong Cybersecurity Attack and Defence Drill 2026 employed real-world combat scenarios to identify system vulnerabilities while testing the defense mechanisms and incident-response capabilities of participating departments and organizations.

This year’s exercise saw an expansion in scale, featuring a total of 51 defensive “blue teams”, covering designated information systems across 28 government departments, 23 public organizations and newly-introduced private enterprises. By comparison, last year’s defensive lineup comprised 25 government agencies and nine public institutions.

Throughout the drill, the blue teams defended against 23 attacking “red teams”. These units comprised 15 cybersecurity professional organizations from the Chinese mainland and the HKSAR, four local tertiary institutions, three attacking teams recommended by the Cyberspace Administration of Guangdong province, and one deployed by the SAR government’s Digital Policy Office.

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The “red teams” launched simulated cyberattacks in a strictly controlled environment to examine the defense capabilities of the “blue teams”, enabling all participants to gain hands-on experience in countering various cybersecurity threats.

The diverse lineup demonstrates the exchange and collaboration between Guangdong and the Hong Kong SAR in cybersecurity, as well as their joint efforts to cultivate cybersecurity talent, a spokesperson for the SAR government said.

Representatives of more than 80 different organizations attended the event as observers to understand the operations of the drill, exchange practical experience, and prepare for participation in future exercises.

Witnessing the successful conclusion of the exercise, Cari Wu Wa, acting deputy commissioner (digital infrastructure) at the Digital Policy Office, encouraged all participating units to maintain close exchanges in cybersecurity to jointly build a robust shield for Hong Kong.

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Spearheaded by the Digital Policy Office, the drill was co-organized by the Security Bureau’s Office of the Commissioner of Critical Infrastructure (Computer-system Security), the Hong Kong Police Force‘s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation, Cyberport, the Hong Kong Cybersecurity Professional Association, and the Hong Kong Institute of Information Technology.