| 8:00am – 9:00am | Registration, Breakfast, and Networking |
| 9:00am – 9:25am | Opening Ceremonies and Welcome |
| 9:25am – 10:10am | Mainstage Panel: Whole-of-State Cybersecurity in Home Rule States | In states with strong home rule provisions, local autonomy can complicate efforts to enact whole-of-state cybersecurity cybersecurity strategies. Home rule grants counties and municipalities authority to govern their own affairs around cybersecurity. As a result, local entities may not adopt state-recommended frameworks, software, or policies. This can lead to fragmented security capabilities, inconsistent incident reporting, and challenges coordinating responses to cyber incidents. Because statewide mandates are often not an option, state cybersecurity agencies must invest in relationship building and sustained engagement to advance their whole-of-state cybersecurity goals. In this session, state cybersecurity leaders will discuss the challenges of working in home rule environments and share strategies for building trusted partnerships with local governments that strengthen cybersecurity across the state. |
| 10:10am – 10:25am | Coffee & Networking Break |
| 10:25 – 10:30am | Cyber Civil Defense and Take9 |
| 10:30am – 11:15am | Mainstage Panel: Protecting Small-to-Medium Critical Infrastructure in Regions Facing Chronic Underinvestment | Cybersecurity is hardly the top risk that aging critical infrastructure faces. From power plants to water treatment facilities to roads and transit, physical infrastructure faces competing priorities as staff retire and funds for large renovations dry up. This panel will examine the cybersecurity and resilience challenges facing rural hospitals, water districts, and small electric utilities in regions where aging infrastructure can compound cyber risk, and how owners and operators are working to balance digital investments with other pressing challenges. |
| 11:30am – 12:30pm | Breakout Sessions (A) | How to Build Student-Led Regional Security Operations Centers (RSOCs) | This panel explores the evolution of Regional Student-Led Security Operations Centers, from their initial conception as a strategic bridge between state-level cybersecurity goals and local government needs to their full-scale rollout. By examining the operational “day-in-the-life” of student analysts, the discussion highlights how these centers serve dual purposes: providing critical, cost-effective security support to underserved regional entities while acting as a high-octane engine for professional development. Panelists will address the logistical and technical hurdles of setting up RSOC programs, the collaborative efforts required to bridge the gap between state policy and local implementation, and the measurable impact these SOCs have on the state’s workforce development pipeline and long-term security resilience. |
| | Current Trends in Industrial Cybersecurity | As industrial operations become increasingly connected through digitalization, the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. This session explores the latest trends shaping industrial cybersecurity across manufacturing, energy, utilities, transportation, and critical infrastructure. Attendees will gain insight into emerging threats targeting operational technology (OT), the convergence of IT and OT security, evolving regulatory requirements, and best practices for building resilient industrial environments. Panelists will discuss current attack techniques, lessons learned from recent incidents, advances in threat detection and response, zero trust architectures for OT, secure remote access, supply chain security, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in both cyber defense and cyber threats. The session will also examine practical strategies for balancing operational reliability with robust security controls. |
| 12:30pm – 1:30pm | Lunch |
| 1:45pm – 2:45pm | Breakout Sessions (B) | Leveraging Volunteers to Improve Government Response to Cyber Incidents | As cyber threats continue to target local governments, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, community cybersecurity volunteering programs are emerging as a critical line of defense at the grassroots level. Across the central United States, dedicated volunteers are stepping in to build cyber resilience where resources are often thin and professional support is out of reach. This panel will convene leaders of state cyber corps programs who are doing the hard work of standing up and sustaining these efforts on the ground. The discussion will explore the tangible impact these programs are delivering on cyber incident response and the organizational challenges of keeping them running, and the strategies for building volunteer pipelines that last.
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| | Lightning Talk Series: How Central States are Translating Empirical Cybersecurity Research into Impact |
| 3:00pm – 3:45pm | Mainstage Panel: State Cyber Policy in Central | Amid shifting headwinds in U.S. federal leadership on cyber defense and cyber capacity building, states are increasingly taking up the mantle of cybersecurity leadership. State legislatures have become the primary engines of cybersecurity policymaking in the U.S., with legislatures proposing hundreds and enacting dozens of cybersecurity-related bills every year. This panel will convene state lawmakers who are introducing and passing cybersecurity legislation aimed at strengthening cyber defense across local government and critical infrastructure. The discussion will explore the cybersecurity policy priorities currently under consideration, the motivations behind them, and the challenges and obstacles to their passage—highlighting lessons across states to learn from one another to drive forward meaningful progress. |
| 3:45pm – 4:15pm | Action Workshop |
| 4:15pm – 4:30pm | Workshop Share-Out & Closing Remarks |
| 4:30pm – 6:30pm | Networking Reception |
