University of Minnesota sponsors Cyber Security Summit Oct. 9-10
Cyber Security Summit 2012 logo

Summit will address one of the nation’s most pressing security threats

Who: National cyber security experts and technology business leaders
What: Second Annual Cyber Security Summit
When: Tuesday, Oct. 9 and Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012
Where: Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis

Contacts:

Matt Hodson, University News Service, mjhodson@umn.edu, (612) 625-0552

Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, rzurn@umn.edu, (612) 626-7959

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/13/2012) — National cyber security experts and technology business leaders will gather Oct. 9 and 10 at the Minneapolis Convention Center for the second annual Cyber Security Summit. The University of Minnesota Technological Leadership Institute is one of the summit’s presenting sponsors.

The U.S. relies on a vast array of information networks that allow people to communicate and travel, power homes, run the economy, and provide government services. Yet cyber intrusions and attacks have increased dramatically over the last decade, exposing sensitive personal and business information, disrupting critical operations, and imposing high costs on the economy.

This Cyber Security Summit will bring together the technology business community with government policy makers and leaders in academia to discuss cyber threats. The summit will focus on two themes—cyber threat identification as well as information sharing and privacy.

The event, which has grown from a half-day summit last year to a two-day summit this year, will feature a nationally recognized lineup of speakers including:

  • Mark Weatherford, Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Patrick Reidy, Chief Information Security Officer, Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • Howard A. Schmidt, Former Special Assistant to the President and Cyber Security Coordinator
  • Christopher Buse, Chief Information Security Officer, State of Minnesota
  • William Pelgrin, President and CEO, Center for Internet Security
  • Bill Aerts, Director of Information Risk Management, Medtronic
  • Wade Baker, Director of Risk Intelligence, Verizon
  • Renee Lopez-Pineda, Information Security General Manager, Delta Air Lines
  • Eric Kaler, President, University of Minnesota
  • Massoud Amin, Director of the Technology Leadership Institute, University of Minnesota
  • Gopal Khanna, Senior Fellow, Technological Leadership Institute, University of Minnesota; and Chair, Cyber Security Summit

In addition, panel discussions and networking breaks will allow for those attending the summit to interact and join the discussion on cyber security.

“The digital age we live in has totally shattered that paradigm of how we can defend our assets at home and interests abroad,” said Gopal Khanna, Cyber Security Summit Co-Chair and Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering’s Technological Leadership Institute. “There is a compelling and urgent need to establish a ‘multi-stakeholder consortium’ for cyber security to ensure a rapid risk assessment, response, and recovery strategy similar to the way we deal with natural disasters.”

The 2012 Cyber Security Summit is open to representatives of both private and public organizations. Great savings are available for students, faculty, and staff from any college or university who register before Friday, Sept. 21.

To register and for more information, visit cybersecuritysummit.org.

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