The training started with high-level opening session underlining the importance of cybersecurity and cyber resilience in urban settings, with remarks by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union in Uruguay Jan Dzięciołowski, the Minister of Defence of Uruguay Sandra Lazo, the President of ANTEL Alejandro Paz, the Mayor of Montevideo Mario Bergara and the Director of Sustainable Development of Montevideo Silvia Nane. Their remarks highlighted the shared responsibility of local, regional, national and international actors in strengthening urban cyber resilience. 

In the first session, instructor Armani Pogosjan explained how cybersecurity, cyber resilience and cities intersect: from digital-dependent essential services like energy, water or transport to cyber attacks transforming quickly from cybersphere into political and economic cascading crises. He emphasized that as cities become increasingly digitalized, cyber incidents can rapidly escalate beyond technical disruptions intro broader societal and economic crises. Cyber resilience builds on the assumption of incidents occurring and focuses on maintaining critical functions during disruptions and ensuring swift recovery. A cyber resilient city is a city that can keep its most critical core services operational even during cyber attacks or major system failures. To do so, cities must understand what is truly critical, identify essential services and digital system and plan for disruption. The session concluded with roundtable discussion where participating cities shared their current cybersecurity situation and challenges. 

Building on that, instructors Alexander Maaß and Paulo Calçada shared experiences from Germany and Portugal, explaining how cities of Berlin and Porto address cybersecurity challenges. Drawing on practical examples, they demonstrated how structured governance, clear allocation of responsibilities and cross-sector cooperation strengthens municipal resilience. A discussion on cybersecurity governance followed where instructors together with participants explored different governance models used in Latin America, specifically focusing on how responsibilities are distributed between local, regional and national governments. The day concluded with a session on crisis management, reinforcing that coordination and preparedness are central to build cyber resilience and address cyber threats in urban settings.  

Training is organised in cooperation with Intendancy of the Department of Montevideo  (Intendencia Departamental de Montevideo), Agency for Electronic Government and Information and Knowledge Society of Uruguay  (AGESIC, Agencia de Gobierno Electrónico y Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento),  National Administration of Telecommunications of Uruguay  (ANTEL, Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones)  and the Delegation of the European Union to Uruguay.