The Treats of Cybersecurity Month

The scariest thing in the month of October used to be Halloween. Since first being recognized as cybersecurity awareness month in 2004, October has served to educate the public about the very real threats in cyberspace.[Tweet "The Treats of Cybersecurity Month - Protect yourself from the threats in cyberspace #GovEventsBlog"]

Spearheaded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the cyber events held nationwide throughout October serve to engage and educate public and private sector partners and raise awareness about cybersecurity. These events aim to provide tools and resources needed to stay safe online, increasing the resiliency of the Nation in the event of a cyber incident. DHS has organized the weeks of the month around themes to help direct this education. This year's themes are:

  • Week 1: October 3-7, 2016 - Every Day Steps Towards Online Safety with Stop.Think.Connect.™
  • Week 2: October 10-14, 2016 - Cyber from the Break Room to the Board Room
  • Week 3: October 17-21, 2016 - Recognizing and Combating Cybercrime
  • Week 4: October 24-28, 2016 - Our Continuously Connected Lives: What's Your 'App'-titude?
  • Week 5: October 31, 2016 - Building Resilience in Critical Infrastructure

We wanted to highlight a number of the events taking place across the nation throughout the month of October that will tackle these tough and important topics.[Tweet "Take a look at some of the events taking place during Cybersecurity Month. #GovEventsBlog"] Continue reading

DHS Sketches the Tech Future

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

Cybersecurity Awareness Month – A Look Ahead

October has been designated Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In 2009, President Obama recognized the need to increase education and dialogue about cybersecurity. As part of this policy review, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was asked to create an ongoing cybersecurity awareness campaign. The Stop.Think.Connect. Campaign that is highlighted in the month of October is a national public awareness effort challenging the American public to be more vigilant about practicing safer online habits.

With this attention on the far-ranging topic of cybersecurity, a number of events are planned for the IT community to educate and collaborate. In this post we wanted to highlight the range of events professionals have to choose from this month.

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FedCyber Summit: Community engagement is needed now more than ever

Originally posted by  on CTOvision

Cyber practitioners in the federal sector have always needed better ways to collaborate and coordinate and have always been on the lookout for new ways to address challenges. But this year it is especially important. Attacks are up, funds to modernize have been zeroed out, staff has been reduced and now on top of that the shutdown has made things even harder. Meanwhile critical information still needs protecting and adversaries remain as persistent as ever.

This means it is more important than ever to find new ideas to better defend our infrastructure.

We have crafted the agenda of the Third Annual FedCyber Summit (6 Nov 2013) to do just that.

For details and to sign up visit:  http://events.fedcyber.com

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Def Con Hacker Convention to Feds: You’re Not Welcome

Originally posted by Danny Yadron on The Wall Street Journal

Last year, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander keynoted DEF CON, a large annual hacker convention in Las Vegas, in jeans and a tucked-in black t-shirt.

This year, he's not welcome.

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