The National Cyber Summit Recap
The National Cyber Summit (NCS) June 7-9, 2016 in Huntsville, Alabama was one of the best cybersecurity conferences I have attended. The conference included many sessions ranging from paper presentations, new technology overviews, and hands-on workshop sessions. The keynote speakers were knowledgeable, funny, and engaging, and included Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, Commander US Army Cyber Command and Second Army, the Honorable Mike Rogers, former US House of Representatives from Michigan, and the closing keynote speaker was John Matherley, Founder and CEO of Shodan. Thought provoking ideas offered by the presented included questioning how the 2nd Amendment may or may not apply to cybersecurity and the actions of the US in retaliation against cybersecurity threats and exploits.
The sessions ranged from innovative new product ideas offered in proof-of-concept type sessions that were as vendor neutral as a company can get while still sharing new innovation to topic-specific ways to secure systems, networks, and industries. The applications ranged from kiosk solutions to small networks to world-wide-WANS and cloud services and all sizes in between. Several calls to action included the need for innovative solutions to cybersecurity problems, additional education, training, and certification to empower and equip cybersecurity professionals and those new to the field to meet, mitigate, and hopefully eliminate the threats. The problem with this conference was determining which of the concurrent sessions to attend during each period. The dates for next year have already been shared (June 6-8, 2017) and I plan to go next year!
