Silent Horizon, the CIA-sponsored unclassified cyberwar game conducted from May 23 until May 26 in Charlottesville, VA raises important questions about the US government?s commitment to cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection.

Silent Horizon sheds light on how much attention the government is paying to critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity. In the aftermath of 9/11 , conventional wisdom dictates that salafi jihadist terrorist groups will continue to employ conventional tactics in their attacks against the US homeland and its interests overseas. At the same time, this conventional wisdom also argues these groups are also attempting to develop a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) capability. As a result, an additional casualty of 9/11 is the idea that terrorist groups might attempt to surprise the United States with a ?digital Pearl Harbor? cyberattack. There is, however, a growing school of thought that terrorist groups will utilize cyberattacks in support of or in conjunction with conventional assaults in an effort to disrupt emergency response and heighten the psychological impact of the attack. The attention given to the Silent Horizon cyberwar game seems to lend credence to this emerging school of thought. Moreover, it may indicate that the government, or at least portions of the government, is beginning to take seriously the notion that terrorist groups, other non-state actors, or other nation states may use cyberwarfare to target critical components of the nations? critical infrastructure.

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