The Institute of World Politics announced the launch of its Cyber Intelligence Initiative at a sold out inaugural conference at the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City. The event took place on May 24, and General Michael V. Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA and best-selling author, gave the keynote entitled, “Cyber Security: Why Is This (Still) So Hard?”
The luncheon keynote address was given by Peter W. Singer, Strategist at New America, editor at Popular Science magazine, author of Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare and Ghost Fleet. The title of his talk was: “NextWar: Trends Shaping the 21st Century (Cyber) Battlefield.”
Other notable speakers included Jim Richberg, ODNI National Intelligence Manager for Cyber, who gave two presentations during the course of the day on the intelligence community’s cyber threat framework and counterintelligence. Two IWP alumni spoke as part of the event: John Scimone, Senior Vice President, Global CISO, Sony Group, and CW Walker, Cyber Threat Analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Other speakers included John Sano, Former Deputy Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service and current IWP professor; John Tsagronis, Professor of Statecraft and National Security Affairs at IWP; Geoff Hancock, Principal at Advanced Cybersecurity Group, and Carlos Collazo, Principal Advisor at DuKlaw.
Attendees included cyber experts, government officials, defense contractors, embassy representatives, and university professors.
CII Co-Founder Michelle Watson stated, “The Cyber Intelligence Initiative (CII) is a unique professional education program, designed by business leaders and national security experts to help practitioners and organizations better understand and utilize the skills and tradecraft of the traditional intelligence and counterintelligence professional in the cyber domain. CII is less focused on the engineering aspects of cyber security and more on the strategies and operations to understand and minimize risks, and to deflect and proactively counter cyber threats.”
“With all the focus on cybersecurity technology, very little attention has been given to the application of cybersecurity at operational and strategic levels,” added CII Co-Founder Geoff Hancock. “Our program is designed to do just that. IWP’s expertise in national security, diplomacy and corporate statecraft, added to our new cybersecurity experts, creates an excellent intersection of practical application and theory for governments and corporations.”
At the event, CII announced its inaugural Cyber Intelligence Certifications which include: Cyber Intelligence for Threat Intelligence Analysts, Insider Threats, Cyber Intelligence for Counter Terrorism, Cyber Intelligence for Active Defense, Cyber Intelligence Professional, Cyber Intelligence for Business Executives, and Cyber Intelligence for Counterintelligence. These programs will be offered in the fall 2016.
For more information about CII programs, please visit www.cyberintelligenceinstitute.org.