Cybersecurity Summit and U.S. Cyber Challenge Awards Ceremony 2024

Federal agencies and critical infrastructure owners and operators must share information to tackle increasingly complex cyber threats and are responsible for critical infrastructure cyber risks as well as diverse needs for more data for more users in more places than ever. Long-standing challenges with security concerns and timeliness make this task harder.

The agencies who provide the oversight for the Critical Infrastructure are:

• The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is to advise the President on cybersecurity policy and strategy.
• The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is to coordinate the overall federal effort to promote the security of the nation's critical infrastructure, including the sharing of threat information. CISA is responsible for managing the sixteen critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems and networks whether physical or virtual are considered to be extremely vital to the U.S.
• The FBI is to lead counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations and related law enforcement activities across the critical infrastructure sectors and share related cyber threat information.

If any of these systems or networks are weakened or destroyed, it would have a very devastating impact on the security, the environment, structures, finances, national economic security, and/or national public health or safety.

The Summit will address the critical infrastructure sector on several topics including election security, overall cybersecurity initiatives including workforce, and the impact of Artificial Intelligence as it addresses the challenges and risk of security. In addition, the Summit will provide a special dedication and awards ceremony to the winners of the U.S. Cyber Challenge.

The U.S. Cyber Challenge serves as a premier program to identify, attract, recruit, train, and place the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Top performers from different colleges and universities are offered award winning training from top instructors on new concepts and approaches. During the cyber camps in the summer, those who qualify participate in discussions with leaders in the cyber field and teams are formed where they compete against others in the region in a "capture-the-flag" competition where the winners win scholarships and prizes. The winners from each region compete in a National CyberBowl in the fall and are acknowledged at the Cybersecurity Summit in October by representatives from the White House. The mission of this initiative is to identify and train cybersecurity experts to fill the workforce gap of cybersecurity professionals through a process of assessment, training and employment networking.

This event is being done in collaboration with ACT-IAC and the Center for Internet Security (CIS).