Community College Cyber Summit seeks session proposals

The three-day 3CS event will feature workshops, hackathons, panels and a look at developing technologies.

There remain more than 1.5 million open positions in cybersecurity nationally, a number that is expected to grow into next year, according to The Center for Cybersecurity Safety and Education.

There is not only a need for professionals to help in the fight against cyber attacks but also for the development of next-generation talent and best practices to combat malicious actors.

For community colleges, one of the better resources for the sharing of education and information since 2014 has been the Community College Cyber Summit (3CS). Though last year’s event was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is back on for 2021 and will be hosted in Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 5-7.

This year’s Summit will be held by Sinclair Community College, organizers are seeking proposals this year around the theme: “Applying the NICE Framework to Emerging Cyber Technologies.” Sinclair is one of the nation’s community college leaders in cybersecurity, with its own Cyber Investigation Technology degree program and a Cyber Defense Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility learning lab on campus.

“Sinclair’s cybersecurity program features cutting-edge technology and innovative teaching,” said Dr. Bob Spear, Director of the 3CS Summit and Senior Advisor to the National CyberWatch Center. “It also teaches developing technologies that have cybersecurity components, like autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars) and unmanned aerial systems (drones). All of this technology and innovation will be on full display during the Summit.”

The event, which targets individuals who are “new to cybersecurity, as well as professionals and advanced practitioners”, is being hosted by the National CyberWatch Center, National Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance, and National Cybersecurity Training and Innovation Center. The goal is to help facilitate discussions and share technology ideas and products that can lead to better outcomes.

There are several types of breakout sessions: 7-hour Cybersecurity Skills Development Workshops; half-day cybersecurity hackathons; and a variety of labs (three-hour, two-hour and one-hour hands-on labs or one-hour demos) as well as panel presentations.

The Summit will feature five tracks, with suggestions below for those who are interested in applying and presenting, from the 3CS:

Evidence-Based: “How does cybersecurity instruction or practice impact individual competence development or organizational effectiveness? How can we be sure our teaching or the cybersecurity practices included in a curriculum actually work?”

Instruction: How do you teach cybersecurity principles, safe practices, and hands-on skills? What’s new and different? The 3CS Summit suggests these topics: secure coding, incident response, risk assessment, HIPPA, FERPA, and cybersecurity practices in finance, energy, utilities, medical records, and law enforcement.

Practice: How do you incorporate new devices, threats, strategies, technologies into your community college curriculum (mobile forensics, cybersecurity of drones, Internet of Things, intrusion detection systems, and SCADA systems)?

Program Development: How do you prepare your community college to qualify for CAE2Y status? What are employers looking for? How can community colleges pivot to help facilitate those pipelines?

Student: Topics of interest to students attending 3CS (student competitions, student associations, developing cyber competition teams, summer camps, outreach to high schools, further education programs, industry certifications, career paths, resume preparation, interviewing skills, and getting students involved in cybersecurity).” The 3CS also welcomes proposals from students, too.

Those wishing to submit, must do so by June 15. More information on the event and the process can be found here.

Chris Burt
Chris Burt
Chris is a reporter and associate editor for University Business and District Administration magazines, covering the entirety of higher education and K-12 schools. Prior to coming to LRP, Chris had a distinguished career as a multifaceted editor, designer and reporter for some of the top newspapers and media outlets in the country, including the Palm Beach Post, Sun-Sentinel, Albany Times-Union and The Boston Globe. He is a graduate of Northeastern University.

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