Registration open for Cyber Education Summit; speakers announced

Georgia Regents University’s Second Annual Cyber Education Summit will bring together senior military and government personnel, industry representatives, academia and community leaders for discussions on topics surrounding cyber security and education. The summit will take place on Oct. 14 and 15 at the J. Harold Harrison, M.D. Education Commons on GRU’s health sciences campus.

“Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues of our time,” GRU President Dr. Brooks Keel said. “GRU’s Cyber Education Summit is a tool that will bring knowledge and expertise to our community as we build a curriculum and partnerships and embrace the incoming Army Cyber community. This event adds to GRU’s long list of initiatives that show our commitment to the entire cyber mission.”

Former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland are honorary hosts for the summit. Westmoreland is chairman of the NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee at House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Chambliss previously served as vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The summit will also feature the following keynote speakers:

• Stephanie O’Sullivan, principal deputy director of National Intelligence
• Sean Roche, CIA deputy director for the new Directorate for Digital Innovation
• Robert Anderson, Jr., executive assistant director of Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch at the FBI
• Gen. Edward C. Cardon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command
• Gen. Stephen G. Fogarty, commanding general, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon

The summit will include several themed sessions designed to identify the best ways in which participating entities can align existing strengths to leverage collaborations and partnerships and better serve the public and related private-sector industries. Topics include the need for cybersecurity experts in the healthcare industry, cyber education partnerships in the United States, educating the cybersecurity workforce and building a cyber curriculum.

“If you are connected to the Internet, cybersecurity matters to you,” GRU Cyber Institute Director Joanne Sexton said. “That’s why we are bringing experts from different fields to this year’s Cyber Education Summit. Cyber education is interdisciplinary, and we want the summit to reflect that.”

GRU held its first summit in October 2014 with Chambliss as host and Adm. Mike Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service, delivering the keynote address to almost 700 attendees. Since then, GRU has launched the Cyber Institute, which is providing the framework for all things cyber at the university and has hosted two GenCyber summer academies for high school students.

The summit is free for military and government personnel and GRU employees and students. To register for GRU’s Cyber Education Summit, please visit http://www.gru.edu/cybersummit/.