The Carolina Cyber Network has been invited to participate in Operation Tobacco Road 2026, a full-scale cyber defense exercise led by the North Carolina National Guard Cyber Security Response Force. This opportunity is open to CCN students and faculty across the network and offers a rare chance to move beyond the classroom and into a live, simulated environment where cyber incidents unfold in real time.
Operation Tobacco Road is not a typical training exercise. Participants are placed inside a fully developed scenario where a fictional town’s infrastructure is under active attack, with systems that mirror real-world environments including web servers, domain controllers, and segmented departmental networks. Teams are formed from professionals and peers across North Carolina, and each group is responsible for monitoring activity, identifying threats, and reporting what is happening as events evolve. Rather than stopping attacks immediately, the exercise allows participants to see how they actually unfold, creating a level of visibility and understanding that is difficult to replicate in any other setting.
The experience is led by the same North Carolina National Guard team that supports real-world cyber defense missions across the state, including incident response, vulnerability assessments, and continuous monitoring for public sector organizations. This direct connection to active operations is what makes the exercise especially valuable for students preparing to enter the cybersecurity workforce and for faculty looking to bring current, applied insight back into their programs.
Participants are exposed to core areas such as network monitoring, Active Directory, vulnerability management, and structured incident response, while also working through real-time decision-making with teammates under pressure. At the end of each day, the exercise shifts into a “Purple Team” discussion where the Red Team explains the attacks they carried out, allowing participants to connect what they observed to how the attack was executed. This combination of hands-on experience and guided debrief is what makes the learning stick.
Two participation options are available. The hands-on technical exercise runs for five days and will take place August 17–21, 2026 and October 5–9, 2026. A tabletop exercise will also be held on August 19 and October 7, focusing on incident coordination, decision-making, and interagency response for those interested in a non-technical or leadership-focused role.
There is no cost to attend, and lodging is provided for all participants. Attendees only need to bring a laptop, and all required resources are available on-site. The environment is designed to be accessible while still delivering a high-impact, realistic experience.
Operation Tobacco Road represents a direct connection between education and real-world cyber defense operations. It is an opportunity for students to experience how cybersecurity work actually happens and for faculty to strengthen the bridge between curriculum and practice.
CCN encourages all member schools to share this opportunity and support participation across their programs.
To learn more visit: https://www.csrf.nc.gov/operation-tobacco-road
