National Cybersecurity Summit Seeks to Bolster Defenses against the Nation’s Infrastructure

Earlier this week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hosted a National Cybersecurity Summit in New York. The event brought together leaders from a variety of sectors, including Government, academia, energy, finance and telecom industries to create a defense model aimed at protecting the nation’s infrastructure.  DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen attended, as did other administration leadership including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

“With the majority of critical infrastructure owned and operated by the private sector, it is essential that we maintain strong partnerships between DHS and the private sector to underpin our collective defense against the evolving threats we all face. Because of our increasing hyper-connectivity, cybersecurity remains a shared responsibility; too big for anyone acting alone.” Nielsen explained in the lead up to the event. Christopher C. Krebs, Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate also expressed his support for the event, stating, “There is an evident need for a coordinated, cross-sector, government-industry effort to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure from the growing cybersecurity threat.”

Along with developing a working model to help protect the nation’s critical infrastructures, a goal of the summit was to serve as a starting point got further DHS initiatives to advance cybersecurity and critical infrastructure risk management.

To view a webcast of the event, click here: https://www.us-cert.gov/event/dhs-national-cybersecurity-summit