by Associated Press EU holds largest-ever cyber security exercise Associated Press - 30 October 2014 11:27-04:00 ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A European Union cyber-security agency was in Athens to conduct the largest exercise ever held on the continent to prevent attacks on Europe's public utilities and communications networks. The director of the European Network and Information Security Agency, Udo Helmbrecht, told The Associated Press that Thursday's one-day exercise involving 29 countries and 200 agencies dealt with attack scenarios against "critical infrastructure." Helmbrecht said European countries were working to improve their coordination between national security agencies and to further standardize protective software and methods. Examples of serious past incidents, he said, include a wave of cyber attacks against Estonia in 2007 that severely affected the country's banks and government agencies, and the Stuxnet computer virus that was used to target energy and industrial sites in Iran. News Topics: General news, Computer and data security, Computing and information technology, Technology People, Places and Companies: Europe, Athens, Greece, Western Europe Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.