NDIA New England Hosts 7th Annual Cyber Security Event Focused on Cybersecurity and Compliance Concerns Impacting the Defense Industrial Base

On Thursday, May 10^th, NDIA New England held its 7^th annual signature cybersecurity event at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. The theme for this year’s event was “Protecting our Advantage: CMMC, Cybersecurity Compliance, and Resilience.” The day-long program was devoted to addressing the growing number of cybersecurity concerns facing our nation and the defense community.

NDIA New England President Dr. M. Roman Hachkowski, Vice President B. Stephanie Siegmann, and Board Member Ryan Heidorn kicked things off by welcoming attendees and providing opening remarks, followed by NDIA Small Business Division Chair ML Mackey. Throughout the day, attendees heard from leading keynote speakers and panelists from U.S. Government, as well as industry thought leaders on topics ranging from the China threat to CMMC and compliance. 

The all-star lineup of speakers was headlined by COL Candice E. Frost, U.S. Army, who discussed the current and future threats in cyberspace. Other notable speakers included Kristen Lane, Senior Intelligence Analyst, FBI Cyber Division who spoke about the threat posed by the PRC Government to the Industrial Base; the Hon. Jim Langevin, Former Chairman, House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation; Matthew McCann, Regional Director, CISA; and Jacob Horne, Chief Security Evangelist, Summit 7, who discussed changes in NIST SP 800-171 revision 3, the initial public draft of which was released the day of the event.

Breakout sessions were held after lunch with sessions including “CUI: To Protect It, You Have to Know What It Is”, “Security and Compliance for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses”, “Creating the Standard of Supply Chain Risk – MITRE’s System of Trust™”, and “What to Expect From a CMMC/NIST SP 800-171 Assessment”.

The full day was concluded by an impressive panel discussion on cybersecurity and innovation that included the Hon. David L. Norquist, President and CEO, NDIA; Joseph Bradley (SES), Director, Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapons Systems; U.S. Air Force, Laura Élan, Sr. Director of Cybersecurity, MxD; Thomas Hardjono, CTO of Connection Science and Technical Director of the MIT Trust-Data Consortium, MIT; Cheryl Ingstad, Managing Director, National Security Innovation Network (NSIN); and COL Mark Taylor, Project Manager, Defensive Cyber Operations, PEO EIS, US Army.

A networking reception hosted by the Women in Defense (WID) Greater Boston Chapter immediately followed the presentations.

One of the highlights of the event was being joined by STEM students from Burlington and Everett High Schools. These talented young men and women were each presented a donation by NDIA New England for their high schools’ STEM programs as part of the Chapter’s initiative to invest in tomorrow’s STEM leaders and promote STEM programs in our schools.  

“We were honored to facilitate a discussion about how the New England National Defense Industrial Base can assist with improving and addressing our nation’s growing cybersecurity concerns,” said NDIA New England President Dr. M. Roman Hachkowski. “We were so happy to have Everett and Burlington High Schools join us, and we are proud to support STEM programs and provide positive engagements with our community for our young people.”

Thank you to all the attendees, volunteers, sponsors, and speakers who made this year’s Cyber security a great success!

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