DHS, Washington State Agency Help Launch National Cyber Security Awareness Event

The Department of Homeland Security, Washington State office of cybersecurity and National Cyber Security Alliance will hold a public cyber preparedness and cybersecurity event from Oct. 4 to 5 in support of the National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2016.

The two-day event will kick off this year’s NCSAM and focus on topics such as drones and autonomous vehicles, emergency management of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity workforce development and cybersecurity introduction for small businesses, NCSA said Friday.

The event will be held in Bellevue and Spokane, Washington.

Representatives from commercial, government and research agencies such as Microsoft, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington state’s department of commerce and Whatcom Community College will tackle major cybersecurity issues during the event.

Event speakers will include:

• Alex Alben, Washington state’s chief privacy officer
• Michael Cockrill, Washington state CIO
• Michael Kaiser, executive director of NCSA
• Patrick Massey, regional director of DHS’ office of infrastructure protection
• Stuart McKee, Microsoft chief technical officer for state and local government
• Gregory Touhill, former federal chief information security officer