Experts coming to Beaufort summit on ‘critical issue.’ Here’s why you may want to attend
Prominent cybersecurity experts and Gov. Henry McMaster are coming to Beaufort for the first South Coast Cyber Summit on the growing problem of cybercrime and phishing threats.
Building a cybersecurity ecosystem in the Lowcountry to train and employ experts who can fight those attacks will be part of the discussion, too.
The conversation, which is March 7-8, was announced by the city of Beaufort Thursday. It comes as the city, near Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and home to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and two colleges, positions itself as a hub for training and employment in cybersecurity, the practice of protecting computer systems from attacks and one of the fastest growing career fields in the country.
Why should you attend?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects “information security analyst” will be the 10th fastest growing occupation over the next decade, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, which covers the global cyber economy.
And the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report says there were 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime — an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019 — with reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. The top three crimes reported were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams and extortion.
“The world is moving extraordinarily fast, and cybersecurity is something we are dealing with in all our organizations,” Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray, vice chair of the South Coast Cyber Center, said in a news release. “We’ve got a whole host of nationally recognized speakers who will be here to help people network and learn more about this critical issue.”
The South Coast Cyber Center was launched in 2019 as a collaborative that involved the city, Beaufort County, USCB-Beaufort, the Technical College of the Lowcountry, the Beaufort Digital Corridor and the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation. Its mission is to establish the educational infrastructure needed to groom a potential cybersecurity workforce, including those exiting the military.
The Cyber Summit is the center’s latest initiative.
McMaster will be the keynote speaker on March 7. In February, McMaster and University of South Carolina President Bob Caslen announced an effort to develop a statewide cyber ecosystem to make the state more competitive in the cyber industry.
Retired Lt. Gen. Dan O’Donohue, now senior vice president of Owl Cyber Defense, a cybersecurity company based in Columbia, Md., will be the keynote speaker on March 8. Other speakers include John LaCour, founder and chief technology officer of PhishLabs, a cyber threat intelligence company; Mary Galligan, managing director in cyber practice for Deloitte; Dean Bushey, director of Cyber Security Education at University of South Carolina Beaufort; and Shankar Banik, chairman of Cyber and Computer Sciences at The Citadel.
In December, the city completed the purchase of the former Bridges School on Boundary Street. It wants to see a cyber training center established in the building.
This fall, USCB students began enrolling in a new cybersecurity concentration as part of bachelor’s degree program.
And The Technical College of the Low Country recently hired Angela Kern from Penn State, a cybersecurity expert, to run its cybersecurity program, Mary Lee Carns, the college’s vice president for Institutional Advancement and External Relations, told city officials earlier this month.
Under Kern’s leadership, the technical college is planning to launch a cybersecurity associates degree, Carns said. Cyber security professionals, Carns said, are needed at small and large businesses. The college already offers certificates in cybersecurity, which have attracted strong interest from members of the military transitioning to the civilian workforce, she said.
“The banks particularly need cybersecurity,” Carns said.
How to register
The South Coast Cyber Summit will be at Tabby Place, 913 Port Republic St., and will offer opportunities to network, according to Warren Parker, chairman of the South Coast Cyber Center. Registration is free. More details, including the agenda, speakers, and registration, can be found at southcoastcybersummit.com.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 4:30 AM.
