U.S. Army’s largest base, Fort Bragg, conducted an unannounced exercise in order to simulate a cyberattack. Not only that, it’s also the largest military base in the world, with over 50,000 soldiers stationed there. The base did not have power for 12 hours on Wednesday and Thursday which led to some confusion and concern. The base has since issued an apology for the unannounced exercise.
The Charlotte Observer was told by Army officials that this exercise was meant to “identify shortcomings in our infrastructure, operations and security.” It added that the exercise hadn’t been announced to the public because the idea was to “replicate likely real-world reactions by everyone directly associated with the installation.”
The power to the base was cut around 10PM EST on Wednesday and it was reinstated by Thursday afternoon. Since there was a lack of updates from officials, residents were understandably confused, with some taking to social media networks to report the issues.
The U.S. Army has since apologized for causing residents concern on its Facebook page but explained that this was necessary for the test in order to “determine the readiness and resiliency of the installation in a real-world scenario. With that said, our objectives have been met and as many of you know, everything is back to normal.”