The second annual UNT College of Engineering Cybersecurity Summit will be Oct. 19 at the Courtyard Dallas Allen at the John Q. Hammons Center.

Led by UNT’s Cybersecurity Program, which is the first program in the U.S. to be federally certified by the National Security Agency as a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance, Education and Research, and Cyber Defense Research, the summit covers relevant cybersecurity topics associated with today’s business world, including blockchain, emerging technologies, and cyber physical systems.  

The Summit not only showcases the unique cyber credentials found only at UNT, but also seeks to share ongoing innovations and technologies in both the industry and enterprise sectors. The summit advances attendees’ understanding of current and future challenges in cybersecurity through a variety of panels and speakers from industry, research, and academia.

This year, special sponsorship opportunities are available and include allocated time exclusively for vendors and demonstrations. This new opportunity was born out of the feedback we received from our attendees last year, and we’re excited to make it available this year.

The registration cost for the full-day conference is $99, and includes lunch and morning and afternoon refreshments.

For more information, contact Thomas Derryberry.

Program

Keynotes

Gabriel Lawrence, General Manager of Cyber-protection, Toyota Motors North America

Gabriel Lawrence is responsible for SOC, IR, vulnerability management, security architecture, cloud security, application security, red team, blue team, and purple team activities. Previously, he managed application security, vulnerability management, and cloud security for Qualcomm. While at Qualcomm, Lawrence collaborated with Chris Frohoff on advancements in Java Deserialization attacks and presented a paper at AppSecCali 2015, kicking off the discovery of similar issues across many enterprise Java Products. Throughout his career, he’s held many different roles within information technology, including system administration, application development, consulting, and research. He has been active in the technology field for 26 years.

Richard Higbie, Senior Special Agent, U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security

Richard Higbie has over 20 years of multi-disciplined experience in emergency preparedness, investigations (criminal/cyber/personnel), safety/security, asset protection, compliance, and risk management programs. Higbie is known for building new programs from the ground-up, streamlining processes, and optimizing risk mitigation. In his current position, he pioneered and implemented the first embedded liaison position for the Department of State within the Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney’s Office (EDTX), providing the model for similar positions in other jurisdictions across the country, expanding the global investigative capability of both the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Department of Justice.

Higbie spearheaded a global investigation that captured a high-value international cyber-crime fugitive wherein the target was arrested while abroad that resulted in successful prosecutions by both U.S. and international prosecutors. This extensive global ad hoc-based task force exposed one of the first large-scale cyber schemes using dark web forums before such a marketplace was mainstream. This task force was featured in Joseph Menn’s book, “Fatal System Error: The Hunt For The New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet.”

Higbie has held assignments within the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security managing programs and projects that have included serving as a committee member & diplomatic security representative to several NSSE (SEAR-1) designated major events, the program manager for all diplomatic liaison programs at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the U.S. Department of State’s liaison to the Office of the President of the United States in Crawford, Texas, at the “Western White House” while serving both Secretary of State Powell and Rice, and as a member of both the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force before and after the attacks against the United States on 09/11/2001, and the FBI’s Public Corruption Task Force.

Higbie began his career at the Palm Bay Police Department in 1995 where he developed and implemented the department’s first Crime Analysis Intelligence Unit. This new program was centered on crime, intelligence, and investigative analysis using innovative collaboration and consensus building strategies that was recognized by the Florida Chiefs of Police Association as a cutting-edge stratagem in combatting crime by leveraging technology through analytics in support of community-based policing strategies and programs. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminology and Psychology from Radford University. Higbie also holds certifications as a consular officer within the Department of State, as a governance, risk, and compliance professional with the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG), and in crime, intelligence, and investigative analysis as part of the Alpha Group that became a model for best practice certifications for related professional associations worldwide.

Panel Descriptions

Panel 1: Blockchain and Applications

Join our distinguished panelists for presentations and discussions on upcoming technology advancements utilizing applications and extensions that leverage the promises of blockchain to further secure your systems and data.

Panel 2: Securing Emerging Technologies

Cyberattacks will continually increase in all business and industry sectors as more and more mobile and IoT devices connect to the internet. This panel will discuss issues such as new attack vectors in IoT, variable/flexible cybersecurity in trusted hardware, and security by design, among other topics.

Panel 3: Cyber Physical Systems

This panel will discuss how new technologies transcend physical systems (or cyber physical systems), including power grids, vehicles, and transportation systems.

Special thanks to our platinum sponsor