6th Cybersecurity Conference: Threats, Innovations, and New Frontiers

The upcoming NYIT Cybersecurity Conference features the largest-ever lineup of faculty cyber experts, guest alumni, and leading speakers from academia, government, and industry in the event’s six-year history.

The conference will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24 at NYIT Auditorium on Broadway in Manhattan. It features three panels focused on threats and innovations, protecting against attacks, and research frontiers in cybersecurity as well as a workshop on mobile security and a student poster competition. Register online.

Conference participants include cyber experts and intelligence analysts from Cisco, IBM, New York Power Authority, iconectiv, Dell, Northrup Grumman Corporation, Colliers, Owl Computing Technologies, and U.S. Military Academy at West Point's Army Cyber Institute.

NYIT President Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., will open the daylong event with remarks on new threats to and through cyberspace, including those affecting networked and remotely controlled electronics, software, and devices—collectively known as the Internet of Things.

“We’ve designed this to be more of a forum than a purely academic research conference,” said School of Engineering and Computing Sciences Dean Nada-Marie Anid, Ph.D. “Attendees from the financial, health, and information technology sectors, government officials, businesses, and students can listen to the latest trends and pick up new ideas, tools, and approaches as they hear state-of-the-art developments in cybersecurity from leading experts in the field.”

Anid said two keynote speakers are among the day’s expected highlights. The first is Andy Ozment, Ph.D., assistant secretary in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who will discuss government programs and initiatives to protect infrastructure and companies from cyber attacks. The afternoon keynote speaker is Angelos Keromytis, Ph.D., of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, widely known as DARPA.

“We see breaches on a weekly basis and they are impacting millions of citizens,” Anid said. “That’s leading to a big demand in skilled engineers and computer scientists so the overall goal for our school is to prepare our students to meet the national demand for cyber talent.”

Anid said NYIT may work with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to organize joint hacking exercises and information exchanges on cybersecurity topics.  

The conference will close with a student poster competition, awards ceremony, and reception. The competition will be judged by Danielle Santos, a program manager for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who oversees cybersecurity education.

Since NYIT held its first conference in 2009, it has introduced and increased its cybersecurity course offerings for undergraduate and graduate students. Last month, the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency authorized NYIT to open an Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Research Facility to serve the nation’s need for cybersecurity.

NYIT offers a concentration in network security for computer science and information technology majors, in addition to a Master of Science in Information, Network, and Computer Security, taught by faculty experts awarded research grants in biometrics, swarm intelligence, cryptography, mobile, and cybersecurity. This master's degree program is available in New York and at NYIT’s Abu Dhabi and Vancouver campuses.

Additionally, NYIT’s Bachelor of Science in Computer Science is approved by the Ministry of Education in Beijing, China. NYIT has also received formal validation for various cybersecurity course offerings from the Committee on National Security Systems.