National Level Exercise (NLE) 2020 was designed as a series of preparedness activities during the two-year cycle to prepare the nation for some of our greatest threats. NLE 2020 focused on cybersecurity and involved a complex, multidimensional attack that reflected the global threat environment. In the scenario, widespread cyberattacks led to significant impacts on critical infrastructure and community lifelines. State and regional play focused in FEMA Region 1 (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) and FEMA Region 9 (CA, AZ, NV). Federal department and agencies focused on participation from their headquarters locations..
Responding to COVID-19
Coordinating the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic became FEMA and the nation’s top priority in March 2020. Accordingly, the FEMA Administrator made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of National Level Exercise (NLE) 2020 as envisioned, including the full-scale conduct portion. By that time, however, the exercise community had held several lead-up preparedness events to lay the groundwork for the full-scale portion of NLE 2020, including a series of cyber workshops in each of our FEMA Regions conducted in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a tabletop exercise, and other seminars and workshops. These preparedness events engaged participants from each FEMA region and many sectors, including government, educational institutions, military, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, which directly contributed to making our nation more resilient. Our work advanced our national readiness and fulfilled the important legislative requirement for a National Level Exercise every two years (6 U.S.C. § 748(b)(3)).
FEMA worked with its state, regional, and interagency partners to preserve the work that was completed, including sharing the findings from the preparedness events held. FEMA remains committed to preparing the nation for the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk, including the cyber threats envisioned in NLE 2020.
For more information on cybersecurity visit our Ready website.