CA and TX CISOs and More Explore Key Topics at Billington CyberSecurity's 1st State and Local Cyber Summit

Real-time topics that are affecting state and local governments as they face cyber threats will be the focus of the inaugural Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit. Being held on March 19-20, 2024 in Washington, DC as well as virtually, the two-day summit will convene senior cyber leaders to discuss topics such as AI, ransomware, and cybercriminals as ways to avert cyber-attacks at the state and local level.

"This important conference will help mitigate risk by sharing key learnings about cyber threats impacting state and local governments," explained Thomas K. Billington, CEO and Founder, Billington CyberSecurity, a leading cyber education company for executives founded in 2010. "Our agenda is packed with topics presented by leaders who have hands-on experience dealing with attacks on our infrastructure at the local and state level."

State and local governments and the critical infrastructure they support are facing significant cyber-attacks. In the last year, the state of Illinois, the city of Dallas, and the Los Angeles Unified School District have experienced cyber-attacks that impacted their day-to-day operations over multiple weeks. To help localities better prepare, sessions will explore a variety of critical topics to help protect them. A few highlights include:

• 3/19: Q&A with the CISA and FEMA Grant Administrator?Leaders discuss learnings from jointly administered State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program and the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program.
• 3/19: China in Your Digital Backyard?Panel explores watch areas as the US Government and its allies are increasingly worried about China's theft of intellectual property and use of artificial intelligence for hacking and spying against nations.
• 3/20: Conversation with California's CISO?Fireside with the California's CISO will focus on how state is addressing and preventing cyber threats by leveraging integration, automation, and continuous monitoring.
• 3/20: The National Guard's Role in Protecting America's Networks?Fireside chat highlights Guard's role in helping state and local areas improve cybersecurity and assisting when cyber incidents occur.
• 3/20: A View from the Trenches? Panel of city CISO and cyber officials explore how digital technology is increasingly being used by cities to both improve local services while preparing to make their municipalities more efficient and secure.
• 3/20: Cyber Attack?View from First Responders?Panel examines a real ransomware attack, highlights lessons learned, and provides insights for how state and local officials might better prepare.
• 3/20: AI Cybersecurity Strategy?Session explores how government entities can deploy, leverage, and manage AI technology for shoring up cyber defenses.

More than 30 cyber leaders will be speaking at these sessions, including:

• Vitaliy Panych, CISO, State of California
• Nancy Rainosek, State Chief Information Security Officer, Texas Department of Information Resources
• Colin Ahern, Chief Cyber Officer, State of New York
• Katie Savage, Secretary, CIO, Maryland Department of IT
• Steven Hernandez, CISO, Department of Education
• Bill Zielinski, CIO, City of Dallas
• Bess Mitchell, Chief, Grant Operations, DHS
• Nishant Shah, Senior Advisor for Responsible AI, State of Maryland
• Josiah Raiche, Director of Artificial Intelligence, State of Vermont

The summit takes place at the National Press Club at 529 14th St NW, Washington, DC. To accommodate attendees from various states, the summit will also be offered virtually. Credentialed working media are invited to cover in person or online. All sessions are open to the press except the workshops that precede the event on March 19 and the roundtables at lunch on March 20. Press interested in covering and other attendees should register at: https://whova.com/portal/registration/ssle_202403/.

Attendees can receive continuing education credit from CompTIA and (ISC)2. Presented by a variety of sponsors, led by: CISCO, Amazon Web Services, NightDragon, Carahsoft Technology Corp., Anomali, CompTIA, Presidio, and Sailpoint.