Cybersecurity event brings experts to campus Oct. 13

This month, the Oregon Cyber Resilience Summit will bring federal and industry security leaders to the University of Oregon campus for the first time in three years.

The one-day summit will take place Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Erb Memorial Union. UO students, faculty members and staff can register for free.

Returning to an in-person format after two years online, the event will convene national and regional experts to discuss cybersecurity threats and share skills to combat them.

"Cyberthreats continue to present major risks and challenges across all sectors of our economy," said José Domínguez, the UO's interim chief information security officer. "Because of the close relationships between sectors, we want to bring together people from throughout the community to learn and train together."

The theme for this year's summit is strengthening the information security workforce through diversity. The event will feature a "fireside chat" with Nitin Natarajan, deputy director for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and a closing keynote address about investigative bias by Drea London-Petter, the global senior director of digital forensics and incident response at cybersecurity company SentinelOne.

The three-track agenda also includes presentations by UO students about their jobs in the Information Security Office and by UO staff about cybersecurity during the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

The summit is free for students, faculty members and staff of any Oregon university, community college or high school. The general public, including IT and cybersecurity professionals, can also attend for a $25 fee. Preregistration is recommended.

A companion event, the Oregon Cybersecurity Challenge Cup, wrapped up Oct. 6. Now in its second year, the statewide competition helps engage younger generations of Oregonians in cybersecurity.

The UO is hosting the summit in partnership with regional staff from the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oregon Department of Justice's TITAN Fusion Center, and the Technology Association of Oregon as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

—By Nancy Novitski, University Communications