(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Homeland Security officials were planning to convene in Atlanta for a cybersecurity “tabletop exercise” on Election Day. But after public backlash, the event was cancelled.
“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,” the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference said on its website.
“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.”
Election Day Cybersecurity Threat (exercise) CANCELLED…
AFCEA has cancelled its Election Day cyber threat exercise and Homeland Security conference due to “A rapid and unanticipated rise in rhetoric and threats stemming from disinformation about the purpose of the event and… pic.twitter.com/ZNVoKSXFIF
— Garland Favorito (@VoterGa) October 25, 2024
Skeptics had been questioning why the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference was holding its event in Atlanta—where Donald Trump alleged that election fraud took place in 2020—on Election Day, no less.
“What remote sites will the exercise access? What federal, state and local agencies will participate? Whose idea was it to have a cybersecurity threat exercise on Election Day in a key battleground state? Who is controlling the cybersecurity threat exercise?” VoterGA cofounder Garland Favorito asked earlier this week on Twitter/X.
“Why would key individuals be here instead of monitoring real threats on the very day when we are at the highest risk of attack?”
While the table-top exercise was cancelled, Georgia is still set to use Dominion Voting Systems in the upcoming 2024 election, despite a forensic report showing cybersecurity flaws in Dominion’s voting machines. Georgia election officials have said that the machines won’t be updated until after the 2024 elections because it’s such a massive undertaking.
Georgia’s voting machines already came under attack before voting even began. In April tech publication CyberScoop revealed that a cyberattack forced local government officials to sever their connection with the state’s voter registration system in none other than Coffee County.
Part of Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s election integrity case stems from Coffee County, due to a team led by Trump lawyer Sidney Powell allegedly accessing election equipment there in January 2021 in an attempt to prove fraud.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
