Most internet users are concerned at some point about being hacked or experiencing fraud. Attendees at the 12th annual National Cyber Summit this week at the Von Braun Center were thinking about similar issues, but on a much broader scale.

The conference was hosted by the North Alabama Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association, aided through a partnership with Cyber Huntsville Corporation, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Auburn University Research, along with multiple sponsors.

The theme of this year’s summit was “Cybersecurity 2021: Pivot. Respond. Inoculate.” Hundreds of attendees and exhibitors in the VBC South Hall saw first-hand and discussed the latest cyber technologies, threats, challenges and more. From local threats to those coming from around the world, companies large and small are being challenged to do more to learn, upgrade and protect their assets.

The summit on Wednesday featured keynote presentations from:

— Merritt Baer, principal security architect of Amazon Web Services

— Chris Cleary, principal cyber advisor to the Navy

— Allison Miller, Chief Information Security Office, Optum Senior Vice President, Global Enterprise Cyber Security Office

— Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley (Ret.), former director, Defense Intelligence Agency

Bad actors around the world took advantage of the 2020 pandemic crisis, and are still doing so, to hit companies and government agencies.

Included in these attacks were bigs names, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Honda, Garmin, Twitter and others.

Cyber attacks grew by more than 400 percent during the first months of the pandemic, according to Dr. David Schippers of the CyberAutomotive Program with Walsh College. Those attacks continued during summer 2020 and adapted, as companies moved to remote work and some security efforts lagged.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also attended, with information on its forensic Internet Crime Compliance Center (IC3).

Data and prevention efforts regarding Elder Law and fraud was a major topic that they discussed this past week. After a law was passed in 2017, the Department of Justice created the Elder Justice Initiative to help battle cyber attacks and fraud on the elderly.

Elder fraud is a financial fraud scheme that targets or affects seniors. In 2020, the FBI’s IC3 unit received 105,301 complaints from victims over the age of 60. The financial losses from those complaints totaled more than $966 million.

Common scams include those focused on romance, tech support, grandparents (“Send me money, grandma!” scams), government impersonation, sweepstakes, charity or lottery scams, home repair, television/radio scams, family (or) caregiver, and investment.

The Cyber Cup Challenge for students (high school, college) and professionals also ended Wednesday, with up to $14,000 in prizes awarded. The Challenge “aims to inspire technical skillset development through fun security-focused competitions.”

Several colleges were on hand to offer advice to potential attendees, including Mississippi State University, Columbia Southern University, Athens State University, Auburn University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

At Auburn University’s Harbert School of Business, for example, students could pursue an MBA with specific concentration on cyber security, leadership or other tracks.

The conference was part of Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle’s projects in the creation of the Cyber Huntsville Initiative.

With the city’s long history in technology, military and biotech, and the explosive growth of the internet, the initiative and annual conference helps attendees with training for continued development.