The Atlanta Regional Commission today held a joint cyberterrorism tabletop exercise that included about 150 officials from the City of Atlanta and Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties.

It’s the first time that multiple jurisdictions in metro Atlanta have come together for a cyberterrorism training exercise.

“When it comes to a cyberattack involving our local governments, it’s a matter when, not if,” said Bernard Coxton, Director of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness at ARC. “Our goal with this training exercise is to enhance our collective ability to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from a cyber incident.”

The 150 participants represented a range of city and county departments, including IT, legal, law enforcement, fire, finance, communications, and elections. The scenario they faced involved a cyberterrorism attack that sought to derail a train, compromise electronic voting systems, and utilize artificial intelligence to drive a disinformation campaign.

The exercise was coordinated by ARC’s Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Department, which is part of the federal Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), and was conducted by L2 Defense. The training session aims to identify any gaps in response and coordination that exist among the participating local governments and recommend action steps to address them.

“Cyberterrorism must be addressed from a regional level,” said Anna Roach, ARC Executive Director & CEO. “We know from experience that an attack on one jurisdiction can spread to others in the area, so it’s imperative that our local governments are able to work together and respond in real time to mitigate any damage.”