The 12th annual National Cyber Summit officially begins today at the Von Braun Center, with experts from across the country in town to discuss cyber threats, security and impacts on economic development.

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

“There is no better place to address cybersecurity than in Huntsville, Alabama,” Battle said earlier this summer. “This city is at the pinnacle of technology, and the National Cyber Summit brings together the best and brightest from our government, industry, and academic technical community.”

The conference is hosted by the North Alabama Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association. It is being put on thanks to a partnership between Cyber Huntsville Corporation, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Auburn University Research, along with multiple sponsors.

Keynote speakers include:

— Lynn Dohm, executive director, Women in Cybersecurity

— Merritt Baer, principal security architect, Amazon Web Services

— Dr. Raj Iyer, CIO, Office of the Secretary of the Army

— Chris Cleary, principal cyber advisor to the Navy

— Jon Hall, chairman of the board, Linux Professional Institute.

— Brian Turner, executive assistant director of Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI

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

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

Some session topics include “Resilient Cyber Physical Systems,” “CompTIA CASP+ Exam Review,” “The Cloud Developer – Generation DevOps,” “Secure, Reliable Infrastructure Services in the Southeast,” “Increasing Log Availability in Unmanned Vehicle Systems,” “Design of a Virtual Cybersecurity Escape Room,” “Social Engineering Attacks in Healthcare Systems: A Survey,” and “Identifying Anomalous Industrial-Control-System Network Flow Activity Using Cloud Honeypots.” Some sessions are multiple-hours training and others are lightning rounds for quick dissemination of information.

The conference will be live. Face masks are mandatory for attendees. Along with information sessions and keynote speakers, on Wednesday the conference will have a Cyber Cup Challenge sponsored by Deloitte, street party and networking breakfast. Tuesday evening’s festivities include a pub crawl. Thursday morning is a women’s breakfast with multiple key speakers, followed by the Cyber Cup Challenge and more sessions at the VBC South Hall.

The Cyber Cup Challenge returns for its third year, with up to $14,000 in prizes to be awarded to student (college, high school) and professional winners. The Challenge “aims to inspire technical skillset development through fun security-focused competitions.”

“We are so excited to return in-person for this year’s National Cyber Summit in Huntsville,” said National Cyber Summit Director Judy Darwin. “NCS connects senior cyber-tech leaders to those just starting in cyber-tech fields. This is critical to building a stronger more resilient cyber workforce in government, industry and academia to ensure we protect our national interest from all enemies foreign and domestic.”

For more information, please visit https: https://www.nationalcybersummit.com/Summit-Info/About