Washington, D.C. –
Cyber leaders from across multiple sectors descended upon the National Defense University’s (NDU) campus to participate in the third annual Cyber Symposium hosted by U.S. Cyber Command on Dec. 5 of 2023.
Co-sponsored with the NDU’s College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC), this iteration of the Cyber Symposium served as an opportunity to welcome a diverse group of cyber experts from government, the military, academia, and industry to engage in a rich conversation about the future of cyberspace and information with a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Academia and the private sector see the challenges and threats of tomorrow,” said Army Col. Raul Rodriguez-Medellin, USCYBERCOM’s Director of Academic Engagements.
Panelist representing government, the military, academia, and industry were invited to share their own thoughts about the future of cyber. Moderators from USCYBERCOM ask them questions from retaining the workforce to AI. At the end of each panel, participants of the conference were given a chance to ask the panelist any questions they wished to ask.
This year’s conference saw a significant increase in participants, with 140 attending in person and 150 attending virtually, nearly tripling the nearly 120 participants from the previous years. Rodriguez-Medellin stressed the significance of bringing Cyber professionals from across multiple sectors to discuss the evolving cyber security threat.
In recognition of the need to stay fast and agile in today’s dynamic security environment, CYBERCOM continues to host events like the Cyber Symposium to enhance its partnerships. As the cyber security threat evolves, CYBERCOM also continues to explore how to best leverage these partnerships to recruit, train, educate, and retain cyber operations forces and a robust civilian workforce.
Army Col. Pedro J. Rosario, Director of USCYBERCOM Manpower and Personnel, stresses the importance of utilizing the strengths and talents of the workforce for the command. “Like industry, we are managing workforce expertise more deliberately, identifying maturing talent across the civilian and military workforce and tailoring career progression to strengthen individual knowledge and expertise.”
“At Cyber Command, and Government in general, we see the threats of today. As one of the panelists said, the enemy only has to get it right once,” said Col. Rodriguez-Medellin. “We, Academia, Government and Industry, have to get it right every time.”