Sunday, August 16, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

  • Room: Olmstead Street Level Foyer
Tracks:

    Monday, August 17, 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM

    • Room: Olmstead Street Level Foyer
    Tracks:

      Monday, August 17, 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM

      • Room: 2nd Floor above Hotel Main Lobby
      Tracks:

        Monday, August 17, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

        • Room: Lamar B/C
        The DoD is implementing a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) that offers a consistent roadmap for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), and beyond, to mature its overall Cybersecurity capabilities in a proactive way to enhance their business case, protect their brand, while protecting our Nation’s Economy and Security. The CMMC ecosystem consists of various organizations managed and coordinated by the CyberAB and the Cybersecurity Assessor and Instructor Certification Organization (CAICO), they currently include: Organizations Seeking Compliance (OSC) CMMC Third-Party Assessment Organizations (C3PAO) Provisional Assessors/ Certified CMMC Professionals/ Certified CMMC Assessors Registered Practitioner Organization (RPO) Registered Practitioner (RP)/ Registered Practitioner Advanced (RPA) Licensed Publishing Partners (LPPs)/ Licensed... ...read more...
        Speaker(s)
        Speaker (confirmed)
        Dan Turissini
        Chair
        AFCEA Homeland Security Committee
        Tracks:

          Monday, August 17, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

          Monday, August 17, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

          • Room: Lamar B/C
          Last year, "Dark Entry" tore down myths about "secure" infrastructure. This year, we have seen hasty AI integration and subsequent weaponization dramatically widen the risk aperture. This vulnerability stems from the rigid, legacy code rotting underneath it all, making modern encryption merely table-stakes for data security.  If the United States is going to win the AI race economically and from a national security perspective, we must face a harsh reality: forcing advanced AI agents into ancient architectures creates massive security blind spots, shadow AI usage, and catastrophic data leaks. Worse, there simply isn't enough time to manually rewrite this software, even... ...read more...
          Speaker(s)
          Panelist (confirmed)
          Paul J. Lilly, Ph.D., DM, MBA, PMP
          Founder
          Taj Quantum
          Panelist (confirmed)
          Kathryn (Kat) Wang
          Principal, Public Sector
          SandboxAQ
          Tracks:

            Monday, August 17, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

            • Room: Lamar B/C
            Speaker(s)
            Speaker (confirmed)
            COL Kathy Swacina, USA (Ret.)
            Chief Information Officer, Kolibri Strategy
            AFCEA Vice Chair, Homeland Security Committee
            Tracks:

              Monday, August 17, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

              • Room: Estes A
              Cybersecurity mandates across defense, business, government, and life-critical systems are growing in urgency and complexity. Whether facing compliance, Agile integration, or zero-failure system demands, organizations increasingly depend on more than just secure code — they need people who are capable, aligned, and ready for what’s next. This talk introduces the Cyber Success Vector™, a leadership and workforce development model designed to grow mission-ready cyber professionals. Fully compatible with the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) and NICE Workforce Framework (NICE), this model enables organizations to: Build and sustain NICE-aligned competencies across diverse roles. Integrate cyber readiness into Agile and DevSecOps environments Align people capabilities with... ...read more...
              Speaker(s)
              Speaker (confirmed)
              LTC Douglas Gray, USA (Ret.)
              Founder
              GrayVector LLC
              Tracks:

                Monday, August 17, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

                • Room: Lamar B/C
                The U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is a primary target for advanced cyber adversaries seeking to compromise sensitive defense information. Securing this vast ecosystem, which includes the DoD, DIB partners, and academic enterprises, is critical to maintaining the Joint Force's technological edge. This session will provide an in-depth overview of the DoD Cyber Crime Center (DC3), a Federal Cyber Center at the forefront of this mission. We will explore DC3's multifaceted lines of effort, from digital forensics and cyber training to its pivotal role in facilitating public-private partnerships. Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of the voluntary DIB Cybersecurity (DIB... ...read more...
                Speaker(s)
                Speaker (confirmed)
                Terrance (Terry) Kalka
                Director
                DC3 DoD-Defense Industrial Base Collaboration Information Sharing Environment (DCISE)
                Tracks:
                  • Room: Estes A
                  Now that Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) has transitioned from a compliance construct to an enforceable contractual requirement, defense contractors are confronting a critical reality: compliance alone does not equal resilience. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification establishes what must be protected and which practices must be institutionalized, but it is Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) that defines how those requirements are sustainably operationalized in modern, hybrid, and contested environments. This session explores how Zero Trust is not a parallel initiative to CMMC, but the architectural and operational foundation that enables consistent, measurable, and defensible compliance across CMMC domains. By eliminating implicit trust... ...read more...
                  Speaker(s)
                  Panelist (confirmed)
                  Derek Kernus
                  CEO
                  Aethon Security
                  Panelist (confirmed)
                  Noël Vestal
                  CIO
                  Aethon Security
                  Tracks:

                    Tuesday, August 18, 6:30 AM - 5:30 PM

                    • Room: Olmstead Street Level Foyer
                    Tracks:
                      • Room: 2nd Floor above Hotel Main Lobby
                      Tracks:

                        Tuesday, August 18, 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM

                        • Room: Plaza Lobby/Riverwalk Hallway
                        Tracks:

                          Tuesday, August 18, 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM

                          • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                          Speaker(s)
                          Speaker (confirmed)
                          LTG Bruce T. Crawford, USA (Ret.)
                          President & CEO
                          AFCEA International
                          Speaker (confirmed)
                          MG Ryan M. Janovic, USA
                          Commanding General
                          U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence & Fort Gordon
                          Speaker (confirmed)
                          Russell Keen, Ph.D.
                          President
                          Augusta University
                          Speaker (invited)
                          The Honorable Garnett Johnson
                          Mayor
                          City of Augusta
                          Tracks:

                            Tuesday, August 18, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

                            Tuesday, August 18, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

                            • Room: Government Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                            Tracks:
                              • Room: Engagement Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                              Tracks:

                                Tuesday, August 18, 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM

                                • Room: Exhibit Areas
                                Tracks:

                                  Tuesday, August 18, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

                                  • Room: Estes A
                                  Modern Army and Joint C2 (Command and Control) including Next Generation C2 (NGC2) and CJADC2 initiatives - relies on networked IT, communications, and data systems that are prime targets in contested environments. Counter-C2 involves disrupting adversary command nodes through cyber means (e.g., offensive operations, red teaming against C2 frameworks). ATA’s expertise directly supports both: defensive training to secure friendly C2 systems and offensive/purple team skills to enable Counter-C2 effects. The human element in C2/Counter-C2 success: Why certifications alone aren’t enough  - immersive, scenario-based training is essential. Cyber ranges as force multipliers: Real-world examples of mission rehearsal for C2 protection and offensive Counter-C2... ...read more...
                                  Speaker(s)
                                  Speaker (confirmed)
                                  Lynn Fisher
                                  CEO
                                  Applied Technology Academy
                                  Tracks:

                                    Tuesday, August 18, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM

                                    • Room: Estes A
                                    Elevate decision-making in joint all-domain warfare with Peak Performance Protocols that blend military experience and brain science. Join retired Air Force General Lewis and Dr. Gregory Charlop to explore sleep enhancement, nutritional strategies, and performance optimization techniques to build resilience and reduce high-stakes errors. Discover how to dissect adversaries' motivations and valued outcomes using negotiation tools like Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), and leverage AI effectively by setting clear goals, maximizing data inputs, and addressing human-AI synergies....
                                    Speaker(s)
                                    Panelist (confirmed)
                                    Gregory Charlop, MD
                                    Chief Executive Officer
                                    Corsica Military Solutions
                                    Panelist (confirmed)
                                    Maj Gen Rodney Lewis, Ph.D., USAF (Ret.)
                                    Founder
                                    The Generals Group, LLC
                                    Tracks:

                                      Tuesday, August 18, 10:45 AM - 5:00 PM

                                      Tuesday, August 18, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

                                      • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                      Speaker(s)
                                      Speaker (confirmed)
                                      MG Patrick J. Ellis, USA
                                      Commanding General
                                      4th Infantry Division & Fort Carson
                                      Speaker (invited)
                                      MG James (Jay) B. Bartholomees, USA
                                      Commanding General
                                      25th Infantry Division
                                      Tracks:

                                        Tuesday, August 18, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

                                        • Room: Barton Field, Fort Gordon
                                          • Room: Exhibit Hall
                                          Tracks:

                                            Tuesday, August 18, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

                                            • Room: Reynolds Street/Outdoor Pavilion
                                            Tracks:

                                              Tuesday, August 18, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM

                                              • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                              This panel session will also include a presentation from Cyber Defense Review....
                                              Speaker(s)
                                              Moderator (confirmed)
                                              LTG Susan S. Lawrence, USA (Ret.)
                                              Former President & CEO
                                              AFCEA International
                                              Panelist (invited)
                                              MAJ Dane Knecht, USAR
                                              Chief Technology Officer
                                              Cloudflare
                                              Panelist (invited)
                                              LTC Shyam Sankar, USAR
                                              Chief Technology Officer
                                              Palantir Technologies
                                              Tracks:

                                                Tuesday, August 18, 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

                                                • Room: Engagement Theater- R1058
                                                The next fight will be fast, spread out, and changing constantly under uncertainty. That puts unprecedented load on the systems that move and prioritize people, equipment, supplies, and autonomous assets. This session addresses optimizing logistics, resource allocation, and autonomous coordination across domains in near real time while keeping systems working when bandwidth is tight and there is no central control. Two requirements converge into one problem. First, sustainment: distributed, predictive planning with no single hub that re-prioritizes how combat power moves as conditions, demand, and losses change. That is the digital backbone of the NDS industrial-base and readiness line of effort.... ...read more...
                                                Speaker(s)
                                                Speaker (confirmed)
                                                Michael Longoria
                                                Mission Account Manager - U.S. Army
                                                ServiceNow
                                                Tracks:

                                                  Tuesday, August 18, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

                                                  • Room: Estes A
                                                  Border security involves the regulation and monitoring of a country's borders to manage both legal and illegal entry, prevent criminal activities, and ensure national safety. Securing and managing our borders have been priority mission areas for the military and Homeland Security since their creation. The United States shares 7,500 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico, as well as rivers, lakes and coastal waters along both borders. Our borders also include airspace and the sea. Together these agencies are responsible for the protection of our Country. In addition, our international airports receive international flights, serving as the primary entry point... ...read more...
                                                  Speaker(s)
                                                  Moderator (confirmed)
                                                  COL Kathy Swacina, USA (Ret.)
                                                  Chief Information Officer, Kolibri Strategy
                                                  AFCEA Vice Chair, Homeland Security Committee
                                                  Panelist (confirmed)
                                                  Kari Lindberg
                                                  Honorary Consul of Finland
                                                  State of Georgia
                                                  Panelist (confirmed)
                                                  Dan Turissini
                                                  Chair
                                                  AFCEA Homeland Security Committee
                                                  Panelist (confirmed)
                                                  Paul Wertz
                                                  CEO
                                                  SherpaWerx
                                                  Tracks:

                                                    Tuesday, August 18, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

                                                    • Room: Exhibit Area
                                                    Tracks:

                                                      Wednesday, August 19, 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM

                                                      • Room: Olmstead Street Level Foyer
                                                      Tracks:
                                                        • Room: 2nd Floor above Hotel Main Lobby
                                                        Tracks:

                                                          Wednesday, August 19, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

                                                          • Room: Estes A
                                                          Cognitive stress and burnout are risks that disproportionately affect the STEM workforce. By adapting work processes through a neurodivergent lens, organizations uncover vital strategies that reinforce psychological safety and enhance sense of purpose for all personnel. This session explores how evidence-based practices close systemic gaps, allowing organizations to unlock the exceptional innovation and resilience that comes from aligning individual strengths with mission outcomes. Participants will leave with a framework for identifying cognitive friction points and implementing universal strategies for a more resilient workforce....
                                                          Speaker(s)
                                                          Speaker (confirmed)
                                                          Shale Norwitz
                                                          Executive Director
                                                          Neurodynamic Network
                                                          Tracks:

                                                            Wednesday, August 19, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

                                                            Wednesday, August 19, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

                                                            • Room: Government Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                                                            Tracks:
                                                              • Room: Engagement Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                                                              Tracks:

                                                                Wednesday, August 19, 9:15 AM - 10:15 AM

                                                                • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                Speaker(s)
                                                                Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                LTG Matthew W. McFarlane, USA
                                                                Commander, I Corps
                                                                Joint Base Lewis-McChord
                                                                Tracks:

                                                                  Wednesday, August 19, 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM

                                                                  • Room: Exhibit Areas
                                                                  Tracks:

                                                                    Wednesday, August 19, 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM

                                                                    • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                    This paper studies keyless spatial covert wireless communication under a practical energy detection threat model. We consider a transmitter Alice communicating with Bob in the presence of a passive warden Willie, and evaluate performance using Willie’s probability of detection $P_D$ at fixed false alarm probability $P_{FA}=0.05$ together with Bob’s bit error rate (BER). A Monte Carlo framework compares a SISO baseline against multi-antenna beamforming and artificial-noise transmission. Results show that increasing the number of transmit antennas improves Bob’s reliability through array gain while making Willie’s detectability strongly angle-dependent. In particular, larger arrays confine high $P_D$ to the mainlobe region and... ...read more...
                                                                    Speaker(s)
                                                                    Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                    Nicholas Tey
                                                                    Masters of Science in Computer Engineering
                                                                    Texas A&M University
                                                                    Tracks:

                                                                      Wednesday, August 19, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

                                                                      • Room: Estes A
                                                                      In this session, we’ll give a candid look at how Organizations Seeking Certification (OSCs) commonly derail their CMMC Level 2 assessment. Drawing on front-line C3PAO experiences, we’ll unpack recurring pitfalls, improper or incomplete documentation, shaky scoping and boundary definitions, blind spots in CUI data flows, “paper-only” policies that diverge from practice, weak evidence hygiene, and overreliance on inherited controls or third-party vendors. Attendees will take away proven best practices to avoid these traps and map a realistic path to success. The session also decodes the newly published 48 CFR and its implications as the CMMC program rolls out. You’ll leave with... ...read more...
                                                                      Speaker(s)
                                                                      Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                      Dan Turissini
                                                                      Chair
                                                                      AFCEA Homeland Security Committee
                                                                      Tracks:

                                                                        Wednesday, August 19, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

                                                                        Wednesday, August 19, 10:30 AM - 10:50 AM

                                                                        • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                        Cyber threat reports are a key resource for understanding adversary behavior, often interpreted through frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK. However, deriving tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) from these reports is a manual and time-consuming process, which has motivated many automated extraction approaches. In practice, it remains difficult to compare these methods, as many open-source implementations are difficult to run, lack usable artifacts, or are evaluated under varying conditions. In this work, we examine automated TTP extraction with a focus on evaluating these systems in a consistent and repeatable way. We first study the existing literature and open source implementations to identify... ...read more...
                                                                        Speaker(s)
                                                                        Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                        Sean Frankum
                                                                        Ph.D. Student
                                                                        University of Georgia
                                                                        Tracks:

                                                                          Wednesday, August 19, 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM

                                                                          • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                          Phishing remains the most reported form of internet crime, with the FBI's 2024 Internet Crime Report documenting over 193,000 phishing complaints amid record-breaking $16.6 billion in total cybercrime losses, yet traditional detection methods rely on static blacklists and rule-based filters that cannot adapt to novel attack patterns. This research presents an AI-powered phishing detection system that uses machine learning to classify emails as phishing or legitimate through a multi-feature architecture combining content analysis, URL inspection, and email header metadata evaluation. The system was trained on a dataset of 18,650 labeled emails sourced from Hugging Face, consisting of 11,322 legitimate and... ...read more...
                                                                          Speaker(s)
                                                                          Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                          Allen Donald, Jr.
                                                                          Student in Computer and Cyber Sciences
                                                                          Augusta University
                                                                          Tracks:

                                                                            Wednesday, August 19, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

                                                                            • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                            Speaker(s)
                                                                            Moderator (confirmed)
                                                                            COL Don E. Sedivy, USA
                                                                            Director, Transformation Integration
                                                                            U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence
                                                                            Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                            Joseph D. Welch
                                                                            Deputy to the Commanding General
                                                                            U.S. Army Futures Command
                                                                            Panelist (invited)
                                                                            BG Patrick M. Costello, USA
                                                                            Commanding General
                                                                            U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence & Fort Sill
                                                                            Panelist (invited)
                                                                            LTG Michelle A. Schmidt, USA
                                                                            Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2
                                                                            Headquarters Department of the Army
                                                                            Tracks:

                                                                              Wednesday, August 19, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

                                                                              • Room: Exhibit Hall
                                                                              Tracks:

                                                                                Wednesday, August 19, 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

                                                                                • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                                Modern smart grids operate as cyber-physical systems in which tightly integrated communication, sensing, and control infrastructure increases both operational capability and cybersecurity risk. Machine-learning-based attack detection has emerged as a promising defense mechanism; however, research in this area is constrained by limited availability of labeled cyber-physical datasets and the high cost and complexity of existing real-time testbed infrastructures. This paper presents a low-cost, reproducible cyber physical smart grid testbed designed specifically for structured dataset generation under both normal and attack-induced operating conditions. The testbed integrates distributed voltage sensing, relay-based switching, MQTT-based communication, and scripted cyber attack simulation to emu-late measurement-and-control... ...read more...
                                                                                Speaker(s)
                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                Chad Heath
                                                                                Cybersecurity Graduate
                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                Vidhikala Nainani
                                                                                Cybersecurity Student
                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                Anthony Sambrano
                                                                                Computer Science
                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                Hala Strohmier Berry, Ph.D.
                                                                                Assistant Professor
                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                Tracks:

                                                                                  Wednesday, August 19, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

                                                                                  • Room: Estes A
                                                                                  As AI becomes embedded across command-and-control, intelligence, targeting, logistics, and mission partner environments, the integrity of the cryptographic layer becomes a mission assurance issue, not just a compliance concern. AI-enabled C2 depends on trusted data, verified identity, resilient communications, and interoperable systems that can operate across enterprise, cloud, tactical edge, and coalition environments. Yet many mission systems still rely on cryptographic assets that are poorly inventoried, difficult to prioritize, and vulnerable to future quantum-enabled exploitation. This panel will examine how federal and defense organizations can move from post-quantum cryptography awareness to operational execution. Drawing on perspectives from industry delivery, federally funded... ...read more...
                                                                                  Speaker(s)
                                                                                  Moderator (confirmed)
                                                                                  Timothy Farias
                                                                                  Principal Cyber Security Engineer, Post-Quantum Cryptography
                                                                                  MITRE
                                                                                  Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                  JaBrille (JB) Norcott
                                                                                  Head of Federal Programs
                                                                                  SandboxAQ
                                                                                  Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                  Roy Stephan
                                                                                  Chief Technology Officer
                                                                                  SOFtact Solutions
                                                                                  Tracks:

                                                                                    Wednesday, August 19, 12:10 PM - 12:30 PM

                                                                                    • Room: Engagement Theater- R1058
                                                                                    Developing validated, resilient Machine-to-Machine (M2M) security protocols to prevent "Synthetic Access" breaches driven by autonomous agentic AI is crucial, especially given that current protocols like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) often offer considerable freedom in design, leading to ambiguous and potentially insecure usage. This flexibility creates new attack paths, as servers might query and execute actions for connected clients, inverting traditional interaction patterns and making them vulnerable to arbitrary code execution (ACE), privilege escalation, and data exfiltration by autonomous agents. A multi-layered, adaptive strategy is required. This centers on adopting Secure-by-Design frameworks like Google's Secure AI Framework (SAIF) to embed lifecycle-wide... ...read more...
                                                                                    Speaker(s)
                                                                                    Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                    Mark Maglin
                                                                                    VP, Cybersecurity Strategy
                                                                                    Everforth ECS Federal
                                                                                    Tracks:

                                                                                      Wednesday, August 19, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

                                                                                      • Room: Exhibit Hall
                                                                                      Tracks:

                                                                                        Wednesday, August 19, 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM

                                                                                        • Room: Estes A
                                                                                        AI‑driven adversary autonomy is accelerating the speed, scale, and unpredictability of cyber conflict, challenging long‑standing assumptions about deterrence and control. As autonomous systems independently probe networks, generate exploits, and shape information environments, they create a threat landscape that evolves faster than human defenders can respond. This session examines how national‑security organizations must adapt to a future where machine‑speed adversaries redefine risk, resilience, and readiness. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the cyber battlespace, but its most disruptive impact may come from the rise of AI-driven adversary autonomy—hostile systems capable of independently planning, adapting, and executing operations at machine speed. As the Department... ...read more...
                                                                                        Speaker(s)
                                                                                        Moderator (confirmed)
                                                                                        Diane Janosek, Ph.D.
                                                                                        CEO
                                                                                        Janos LLC
                                                                                        Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                        Darnell Washington
                                                                                        President and CEO
                                                                                        SecureXperts
                                                                                        Tracks:

                                                                                          Wednesday, August 19, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

                                                                                          • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                                          Speaker(s)
                                                                                          Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                          The Honorable Brent G. Ingraham
                                                                                          Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology)
                                                                                          Tracks:

                                                                                            Wednesday, August 19, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

                                                                                            • Room: Estes A
                                                                                            Non-kinetic dominance is often discussed through cyber, AI, data, sensors, secure communications, and information operations. While these capabilities are essential, their operational value depends on whether leaders, operators, agencies, and mission partners can access trusted knowledge at the speed of relevance. Knowledge dominance is the ability to collect, validate, contextualize, share, and act on trusted information faster than an adversary, disruption, or crisis can exploit uncertainty. Drawing from tabletop exercises, borderland resilience work in Finland, AFCEA Atlanta’s ecosystem, and national security dialogue across government, industry, academia, and public safety, this session will examine how trusted data, prepared people, resilient networks, and... ...read more...
                                                                                            Speaker(s)
                                                                                            Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                            Paul Wertz
                                                                                            CEO
                                                                                            SherpaWerx
                                                                                            Tracks:

                                                                                              Wednesday, August 19, 2:10 PM - 2:30 PM

                                                                                              • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                                              Cybersecurity compliance has become a critical requirement for organizations participating in the U.S. defense ecosystem, yet achieving Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 remains a significant challenge for small and mid-sized contractors. Organizations must interpret complex frameworks such as NIST SP 800-171, manage over 110 security controls, and align fragmented evidence across multiple systems, documents, and workflows. This often results in inconsistent outcomes, high consulting costs, and readiness timelines that span months to years, creating significant barriers to entry and limiting participation in the defense supply chain. Additionally, the lack of internal expertise and reliance on manual processes further increases... ...read more...
                                                                                              Speaker(s)
                                                                                              Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                              Aaryan Londhe
                                                                                              Co-Founder
                                                                                              AskCMMC.ai
                                                                                              Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                              Ronit Pawar
                                                                                              Co-Founder
                                                                                              AskCMMC.ai
                                                                                              Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                              Abdur Rahman Khan
                                                                                              Co-Founder
                                                                                              AskCMMC.ai
                                                                                              Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                              Hala Strohmier Berry, Ph.D.
                                                                                              Assistant Professor
                                                                                              University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                              Tracks:

                                                                                                Wednesday, August 19, 2:40 PM - 3:00 PM

                                                                                                • Room: Georgia Cyber Center 2402
                                                                                                The digitalization of power systems has introduced cyber-physical vulnerabilities in smart grid infrastructures that traditional, rule-based detection mechanisms are insufficient to address. This paper presents an AI-enhanced cybersecurity risk assessment framework that integrates the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF~2.0), NIST~SP~800-30, and MITRE~ATT\&CK for ICS with machine learning-based threat detection. Three classifiers: Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and XGBoost --- were trained and evaluated on the Blockchain-Enabled 6G Microgrid Dataset, a multi-layer dataset comprising physical, communication, and blockchain operational features with a severe class imbalance ratio of 29.5:1. Model performance was assessed using accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC, with recall and F1-score... ...read more...
                                                                                                Speaker(s)
                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                Soumik Mitra
                                                                                                Computer Scientist and Software Engineer
                                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                Yash Nilesh Dasri
                                                                                                Graduate Student in Computer and Information Science
                                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                Bhargav Palaskar
                                                                                                Graduate Student in Computer Science
                                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                Hala Strohmier Berry, Ph.D.
                                                                                                Assistant Professor
                                                                                                University of South Carolina Aiken
                                                                                                Tracks:

                                                                                                  Wednesday, August 19, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

                                                                                                  • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                                                  Speaker(s)
                                                                                                  Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                                  Brandon Pugh
                                                                                                  Principal Cyber Advisor
                                                                                                  Headquarters Department of the Army
                                                                                                  Tracks:

                                                                                                    Thursday, August 20, 7:00 AM - 1:30 PM

                                                                                                    • Room: Olmstead Street Level Foyer
                                                                                                    Tracks:

                                                                                                      Thursday, August 20, 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM

                                                                                                      • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                                                      Speaker(s)
                                                                                                      Keynote (invited)
                                                                                                      Tim Kosiba
                                                                                                      Deputy Director
                                                                                                      National Security Agency
                                                                                                      Tracks:

                                                                                                        Thursday, August 20, 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

                                                                                                        • Room: Exhibit Areas
                                                                                                        Tracks:

                                                                                                          Thursday, August 20, 9:00 AM - 9:20 AM

                                                                                                          • Room: Engagement Theater- R1058
                                                                                                          Zero Trust is a philosophy and methods used to secure systems and data. The focus has primarily been on Identity Management or one software security. This talk will discuss the need for Hardware Zero Trust and the need for a hardware and firmware certification to achieve the optimum security of your systems and data. NIST SP 800-207 defines the specifics of a Zero Trust effort. Often the hardware and firmware component of a system are taken as a given because of the many years between replacement. Software and hardware must work together in any system. Understanding the level of security... ...read more...
                                                                                                          Speaker(s)
                                                                                                          Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                                          Tommy Gardner, Ph.D.
                                                                                                          Chief Technology Officer, HP Federal
                                                                                                          HP Inc.
                                                                                                          Tracks:

                                                                                                            Thursday, August 20, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

                                                                                                            • Room: Government Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                                                                                                            Tracks:
                                                                                                              • Room: Engagement Theater (Reynolds Street Pavilion)
                                                                                                              Tracks:

                                                                                                                Thursday, August 20, 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM

                                                                                                                • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                                                                Speaker(s)
                                                                                                                Moderator (confirmed)
                                                                                                                COL John J. Hosey, USA
                                                                                                                6th Chief of Cyber
                                                                                                                Commandant, U.S. Army Cyber and Electromagnetic Warfare School
                                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                                LTG Christopher L. Eubank, USA
                                                                                                                Commanding General
                                                                                                                U.S. Army Cyber Command
                                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                                LTG Jeth B. Rey, USA
                                                                                                                Deputy Chief of Staff, G-6
                                                                                                                United States Army
                                                                                                                Panelist (confirmed)
                                                                                                                LTG Paul T. Stanton, USA
                                                                                                                Commander, Department of War Cyber Defense Command
                                                                                                                Director, Defense Information Systems Agency
                                                                                                                Tracks:

                                                                                                                  Thursday, August 20, 12:00 PM - 12:20 PM

                                                                                                                  • Room: Engagement Theater- R1058
                                                                                                                  As the Army fields autonomous, agentic AI to operate at machine speed, a new class of risk emerges. ""Synthetic Access"" describes breaches in which manipulated or compromised agents gain unauthorized machine-to-machine (M2M) access. Conventional security controls were never designed to anticipate how AI agents, and the models behind them, fail under adversarial pressure, leaving M2M protocols validated against yesterday's threats rather than tomorrow's. SeekrBreakr closes this gap with a mathematical, science-based approach to AI model and agent pen-testing. By systematically breaking LLMs and agents to understand precisely how and where they fail, SeekrBreakr delivers neuron-level insight and quantified assessments of adversarial... ...read more...
                                                                                                                  Speaker(s)
                                                                                                                  Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                                                  Tyler Hallmark
                                                                                                                  VP , Data Science
                                                                                                                  Seekr
                                                                                                                  Tracks:

                                                                                                                    Thursday, August 20, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

                                                                                                                    • Room: Oglethorpe ABCDE
                                                                                                                    Speaker(s)
                                                                                                                    Keynote (invited)
                                                                                                                    The Honorable Michael Obadal
                                                                                                                    36th Under Secretary of the Army
                                                                                                                    Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                                                    LTG Bruce T. Crawford, USA (Ret.)
                                                                                                                    President & CEO
                                                                                                                    AFCEA International
                                                                                                                    Speaker (confirmed)
                                                                                                                    MG Ryan M. Janovic, USA
                                                                                                                    Commanding General
                                                                                                                    U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence & Fort Gordon
                                                                                                                    Tracks:

                                                                                                                      Saturday, August 22, 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM

                                                                                                                      • Room: Olmstead Hall
                                                                                                                      Tickets, sponsorships, ,and additional details coming soon...
                                                                                                                      Tracks: