The University of South Florida hosted their annual Networking the Future cybersecurity conference at the Tampa Convention Center. The conference had representation in the cybersecurity field from various industries, government, military and academia that included both technical and non-technical discussions. Students from SPC’s CCIT Cybersecurity program were able to attend and benefit from the activities that the conference had to offer. Many of the discussions pertained to the emerging threats that all organizations, businesses, and institutions are having to deal with, cybersecurity best practices and research, workforce development, and the current cybersecurity trends. CCIT student James Austen said he learned a lot.
“The wealth of knowledge they have in their respective industries was great,” Austen said.
Networking the Future Cybersecurity Conference
The conference had several presentations, including a morning keynote, and 12 breakout sessions, with topics such as Cloud Security, Behavioral and Human aspects of Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Threat Automation, and much more. CCIT student Peter Halpern said the keynote address on Cyber Evolution was insightful.
“His concept of ‘no more usernames and passwords’ hits the mark, as well as his point that most cybersecurity is ‘signature based’,” Halpern said. “He hit into a key area of cybersecurity which needs to be moved forward: pen testing needs to become more heuristic-based.”
CCIT students were also able to visit the vendor expo hall to see the latest tools and technology in cybersecurity that are being used in organizations today. A special thanks to The USF Whitehatters Computer Security Club, who hosted the conference’s capture the flag event in which SPC participated.
Finally, SPC CCIT students were able to network with peers and people actively working in the cybersecurity industry, have discussions about cybersecurity, get to hear some war stories in cybersecurity, talk cybersecurity strategies, and hopefully meet future colleagues or peers.
Learn more about St. Petersburg College’s Cybersecurity Programs.
This post was co-authored by Ryan Irving.