Tag Archives: cybersecurity

Pumpkin Lattes and Cybersecurity

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October is a month of cooling temperatures, falling leaves, and pumpkin flavored everything. More importantly, it is also a month dedicated to looking at best practices in cybersecurity that will protect our data and the systems we depend on from the evolving threats directed at them. [Tweet "October: falling leaves, pumpkin flavored everything and cybersecurity awareness. #GovEventsBlog "]

From a year's worth of headlines about breaches in the public and private sector we know the threat is real and quantifiable.

  • The annual cost of cybercrime to the global economy is over $100 billion dollars and affects 556 million victims per year.
  • The average length of time that a cyber-attack goes undetected is six months.
  • The average cost of a successful cyber-attack on an organization is rising year-over-year and is currently around $15 million.

October has been designated Cybersecurity Awareness Month by the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is heading up the awareness campaign. Working with public sector organizations and private companies, DHS is encouraging the technology industry to use the month for training and education within their workforce and the public at large. [Tweet "DHS is heading up the October cybersecurity awareness campaign. #GovEventsBlog"]The Department has broken the month into themed weeks to make the daunting task of securing our nation's systems a bit easier to swallow.  This year's themes are:

  • General Cybersecurity Awareness: 5 Years of Stop.Think.Connect.™
  • Creating a Culture of Cybersecurity at Work
  • Connected Communities: Staying Protected While Always Connected
  • Your Evolving Digital Life
  • Building the Next Generation of Cyber Professionals

The DHS website references keystone events nationwide addressing these themes. Next week, we'll provide a list of some key events for the federal IT and management audience.

A Look Ahead at 2015 Events

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While we've seen a trend toward smaller, more intimate events, 2015 signals the return of a number of conferences and shows that are mainstays of the Government IT industry. Here's what you can expect from the "usual suspects" in the first few months of 2015.

  • Federal Networks (Feb 23-24)- This government-wide conference focuses on net-centric solutions to the government's biggest challenges. The event gives great access to the insight from government CIOs and other high ranking IT officials. Signed up for 2015 are CIOs from Veterans Affairs, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Social Security Administration.
  • AFCEA Homeland Security Conference (March 10-11) -- AFCEA International brings together the people in charge of ensuring success--from subject matter experts to frontline responders--for two days of open discussion about the various aspects of homeland security. Cathy Lanier, Chief, Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., is a confirmed speaker and will lead a session titled "Ask the Chief."
  • International Wireless Communications Expo (March 16-20) - This show has been around for almost 40 years and in today's mobile world is more relevant than ever. This education-centered conference provides a wide variety of workshops, training, and short courses led by industry and government experts.
  • InfoSec World 2015 Conference and Expo (March 23-25) - This annual show features conference sessions, workshops and summits that address the most pressing matters in information security today. This year's speaker line-up includes a diverse set of voices ranging from the U.S. Secret Service to WalMart.
  • Sea-Air-Space (April 13-15) - This show, run by the Navy League, is now the largest maritime exposition in the U.S. The event combines a large expo floor displaying the latest in naval technology and equipment with professional development sessions focused on strategy and policy issues, as well as exhibit hall speaker sessions and demos.

What about you? What events are on your calendar for the first quarter?

 

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The Great Cyber Convergence in 2015: AFCEA Speaks

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From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on BreakingDefense by 

Technology is moving too fast to keep track of everything, but there's one overarching trend that policymakers must not miss in 2015. Call it "convergence."

Cybersecurity is no longer its own specialized function for tech geeks to take care of off to one side while the rest of the organization gets on with the real mission. To the contrary, cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly central concern for more and more institutions, from Sony Pictures to the US Army, from Marine Corps drone units to Pentagon cloud computing contractors. Integrating the new technology into operations will require new concepts, sustained funding, and open communications between government and industry -- none of which is guaranteed in 2015. Continue reading →

DHS Sketches the Tech Future

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From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on FCW

Reginald Brothers will probably be out of his job in another two years or so. But he's making policy plans for the next three decades.

This week, Brothers -- Homeland Security undersecretary for science and technology -- laid out an ambitious, though very general, long-term agenda for DHS's tech-development arm that concentrates on developing a seamless cybersecurity infrastructure, networked threat detection technology, and speedier traveler and cargo security detection capabilities.

Brothers unveiled the goals for the Science and Technology Directorate after consultation with a number of stakeholders. Continue reading →

We Want You: To Provide Cybersecurity Training

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We are continuing our focus on cybersecurity as we roll through October, the official month for cybersecurity awareness. Here at GovEvents we feel there is a strong connection between awareness and training. There has been wide reporting about the shortage of trained cyber professionals. So how do we get qualified (and interested) professionals up to speed on the practice of cybersecurity?

As we mentioned in a post this summer, cybersecurity is among the most common topics for events listed on GovEvents.com. There are a wide variety of events from panel discussions sharing lessons learned to specific technology demos and trainings. Given the need for more professionals, in-depth hands on training may be the most needed type of event. Continue reading →