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Critical Infrastructure Threats

November 19, 2023 | 5:00 p.m.

What if you woke up tomorrow with no power, cell service, internet, or access to your bank? The 2021 Texas power outage demonstrated the devastating effects of a regional power outage. Still, we know today that our national adversaries–Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea—are actively seeking tools and access to destroy or disrupt our power grid, communications networks, finance system, and other of our 16 Critical Infrastructures. These three experts will discuss our national critical infrastructures’ vulnerabilities, threats, and defenses.

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Event Speaker(s)

Marc Sachs

Marcus Sachs is Deputy Director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Security and serves on the Board of Cyber Nation Central. Following retirement from a distinguished 20-year career in the US Army as a Corps of Engineers & Systems Automation Officer, Marcus was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve concurrently on staff of the National Security Council and the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. Marcus later joined the National Cyber Security Division of the US Dept. of Homeland Security as its first Cyber Director. Since leaving military and public service, Marcus has served as Deputy Director of SRI International’s Computer Science Laboratory, VP for National Security Policy at Verizon, and SVP & CSO of NERC.

Mark Weatherford

Mark Weatherford is the (virtual) Chief Information Security Officer at AlertEnterprise, the Chief Strategy Officer (and a Board member) at the National Cybersecurity Center, and the Founding Partner of Aspen Chartered Consulting, where he provides cybersecurity consulting and advisory services to public and private sector organizations around the world. Mark is a former naval officer who served as a cryptologist and was Director of Navy Computer Network Defense Operations, Director of the Navy Computer Incident Response Team (NAVCIRT), and established the Navy’s first operational red team. He is an investor and on the Advisory Board of several cybersecurity technology companies, where he has a very successful track record in helping startups from founding to acquisition.

Drew Hamilton

Drew Hamilton is the Director of Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and Director of Mississippi State University’s Center for Cyber Innovation. Previously he served as Alumni Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Auburn University, where he established Auburn’s Cyber Security program. He is a Fellow and former President of the Society for Modeling & Simulation, International (SCS), and former Chair of ACM’s Special Interest Group on Simulation (SIGSIM). During his active-duty career in the United States Army, he commanded field artillery units and qualified in nuclear/chemical targeting. Dr. Hamilton served as the first Director of the Joint Forces Program Office at SPAWAR, working on command & control interoperability and the Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Faculty of the United States Military Academy. Dr. Hamilton is a graduate of the Naval War College with distinction.