Center Co-Hosts July 13 Briefing For Reporters On Covering Cyber Security Issues

American companies large and small are being targeted by cyber-criminals looking to empty bank accounts, steal manufacturing plans or hijack valuable intellectual property. Government and academia are increasingly valuable targets for foreign intelligence collectors. State actors, cyber-terrorists and hacktivists put our networks at risk.

Journalists can learn to understand the risks and their implications in a free, half-day workshop in Washington, D.C. on Friday, July 13. Partnering with the Center on Congress at Indiana University in sponsoring this Capitol Hill Issues Briefing are the National Press Foundation and POLITICO.

Time and Place:

Friday, July 13, 8:45am – 11:30am
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
5th Floor Conference Room
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.

There is no fee to attend, but reservations are required. Register at http://nationalpress.org/programs-and-resources/program/issues-briefing-reporting-on-cyber-security/

Continental breakfast will be available 15 minutes before the program, which starts promptly at 9am.

Agenda

9:00-9:40 a.m.: Understanding the Invisible Internet

Phishing, spear-phishing, botnets, trojans, worms, dns cache poisoning, darknets, honey pots, IRC, route hijackings, zero-days… These are just some of the tools and techniques cyber criminals use to conduct their attacks. We'll take a tour of useful concepts and terms for reporting on cyber security issues.

Speaker:
Chase Cunningham, Chief of Cyber Analytics, Decisive Analytics Corporation

9:40-10:30 a.m. Cyber-threats: Range and Impact


How much of a threat is cyber espionage to U.S. global competitiveness and economic wealth? State actors find it far more economical to steal other countries' innovations than to develop their own. How do they gain access to government and enterprise intellectual property, confidential data and secure information? Separately, cyber-gangs are preying on small and mid-sized companies, setting off a multimillion dollar crime wave that is worrying some of the nation's largest financial institutions. How are these gangs evolving? What other threats lurk in our networks?

Panel:
Ryan Kazanciyan, Mandiant 

Laurie Schive, Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive

10:30-10:40 a.m. BREAK

10:40-11:30 a.m. Legislative Update

Speaker: Kristin Verderame, CEO of Pondera International

The Issues Briefing series aims to help Washington reporters bring more depth and perspective to their coverage of timely topics in the news. Topics for past briefings have included financial regulation legislation; energy and climate legislation; the public’s opinion of Congress’ performance; the budget process; and the debt limit dilemma.