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Breaking: Major National Cybersecurity Exercise on Election Day; What???
Background: “AFCEA [Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association International] Atlanta [Chapter] Homeland Security Conference on Critical Infrastructure, November 6-7, 2024, with a large scale cybersecurity exercise on November 5, 2024” (link in footnote)
—On Nov. 5, ELECTION DAY, there will be a special cybersecurity exercise at the Conference.
Get this. The exercise is described as a large-scale interactive event, with participants from federal, state, county, city government agencies, academia, and industry.
The exercise will simulate a cyber-attack on “critical infrastructure.”
That’s right. It’s a so-called “Jack Voltaic”-type exercise, which was developed to test responses to attacks on large infrastructures.
QUITE odd to schedule the exercise on Election Day.
QUITE odd to run an exercise simulating a cyber-attack on critical infrastructure ON ELECTION DAY, especially since electronic voting across the nation IS a piece of critical infrastructure.
Emergent Rumors -
Cybersecurity Conference in Atlanta Prompts Election Interference Rumors and Speculation
The Atlanta chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International (AFCEA), is hosting a Homeland Security Critical Infrastructure Conference on November 6-7. A pre-conference cybersecurity exercise will be conducted on Election Day, November 5.
The timing of the event and pre-conference has prompted rumors that this cybersecurity exercise is actually an attempt at election interference, which has received significant attention on various online platforms. (See Figure 1)
We first observed this rumor on October 18, with a post from @LaCivita (an advisor to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign) with a screenshot of this conference exercise occurring on November 5, claiming it is suspicious. Shortly after, we saw a far larger account, Laura Loomer (a conservative political commentator who has appeared in our previous research) posting a claim that this is “election interference by Homeland Security” based on this test being run on election day in a swing state (See Image 2).
We continued to see cross-platform spread of the rumor on TikTok and Rumble, where a video of Owen Shroyer’s War Room Podcast (run by InfoWars) covered the conference and exercise. This video is then cross-posted to X.
IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE UPDATE: AFCEA-Atlanta
After careful consideration, AFCEA-Atlanta (a chapter of AFCEA International) and its event production partner Federal Business Council (FBC) are postponing the 2024 Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Conference. originally scheduled in Atlanta for November 6-7, 2024, and a pre-conference tabletop exercise during setup on the 5th. A rapid and unanticipated rise in rhetoric and threats stemming from disinformation about the purpose of the event and its proximity to Election Day contributed to the decision to postpone.
Out of an abundance of caution and because a number of government agencies are unable to participate, we made this difficult decision so that we can deliver a high-quality and meaningful event, with deep and rich engagement across industry, government and academia, and full participation by all stakeholders. We apologize for the inconvenience and are exploring options to reschedule the event. We will reach out directly to all participants with details, including information about transferring existing exhibits, registrations and sponsorships. Updates also will be shared on the AFCEA-Atlanta chapter's event website, on FBC's conference website, via email and on social media.
Thank you for your patience, cooperation and understanding.
They won't just concede when Trump wins, just look at all the mayhem they have done since the standing coup and before.
A rapid and unanticipated rise in rhetoric and threats stemming from disinformation about the purpose of the event and its proximity to Election Day contributed to the decision to postpone.
originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: xuenchen
Rand Paul and others raised the BS flag on them and it's been rescheduled to another day.
originally posted by: Daughter2v2
If everyone was at the conference, then they wouldn't be present to monitor their networks.
originally posted by: billxam1
a reply to: network dude
I have another take. "We tried to prepare for an emergency like a massive cyber attack of the inernet but were forced to postpone due to disinformation." And so we will hear "Now is the time to make disinformation a criminal offense like we see in the UK."