MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Air University returned the Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower Conference to Montgomery, Aug. 29-31, 2016.
After a four-year absence, over 3,500 AFITC attendees invaded the capitol city, bringing together Air Force information-technology experts, prominent IT academics, and America’s best cybersecurity vendors for three days of exhibits, speakers, education, and discussion.
The conference focused on ways to better defend America from cyber-attacks, advanced persistent threats, and proactively lead in an increasingly digital world.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management was hit with one of the worst data breaches in history in 2015. This fissure exposed not only personal data, but also the security clearance information of nearly 22 million people. Almost a year passed before this was realized. Actions such as this brought the brightest in the public and private sectors together, bonding to the theme: America: living free, secure, and productive in a cyber world.
“We must be able to be smarter and more powerful than the evil pirates, thieves and thugs that will fill this space if we do not architect it in a way that gives us, those that love humanity, a fighting chance,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander and president of Air University.
“Anytime something like this (cyber threat) is encountered by a civilization, it is a partnership between civil society, government and those that protect our economy, the military. That is the relationship we have here (at AFITC). As we go forward, we can’t just sit back and say this was a great conference. That is not good enough in this day and age, with everything we see going on in the world. There has to be a sense of urgency that we must make some progress.”
According to conference organizers, entities including foreign governments, hackers, terrorists, decentralized threats, and others have never presented a greater risk to the wellbeing of the U.S. and the cybersecurity of corporations and private individuals. Everything from financial records and personally identifiable information to vital infrastructure and strategic information critical to the safety and security of the U.S. faces a litany of ever-evolving threats.
“In the cyber world, power is a very different thing than it is in the industrial age world,” Kwast said. “Recent threats like ISIS and combatant countries in Asia are only keystrokes away. It is a threat the military and private sector should not take lightly.”
While this is a military sponsored conference, a main objective is to collaborate between DoD entities and civilian companies within the IT world. Mr. Cameron Chehreh, Chief Technology Officer for Dell Federal, represented the private sector as one of the keynote speakers of AFITC16.
“The digital world we are living in is only going to accelerate,” Chehreh said. “For us, it’s not about technology, or what it does; it’s about the mission enabler it creates, to allow you to prosecute your mission, and at the end of the day arrive back at home - that’s what keeps up awake at night as industry. You’re not just a customer, you’re the Department of Defense and you keep this country safe. A warfighter at risk because of wearable technology giving away his position is unacceptable.”
During the wrap-up discussion, Richard Aldridge, the program executive officer for Business and Enterprise Systems at Maxwell Air Force Base, reiterated that technology is not our problem, but people, policy, process and culture need to evolve.
“None of that can happen without leadership,” Aldridge said. “Use your leadership platform to get that people, policy, process and culture areas to actually get technology and innovation and agility we need across our domain to help the Air Force execute the mission.”
Planning has already begun for AFITC17, rebooting the annual collaborative gathering. Joe Green, president for military affairs at the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce said the conference is here to stay.
“Go forward and serve the nation by doing something good with what you have learned,” Kwast said as the conference closed. “Take back something that, in the collaborative process, moves us all forward together. Next August, I want us to gather here and know that we did something real and meaningful.”