University of North Florida Hosts Cybersecurity Awareness Showcase

Joanna Norris, Associate Director 

Department of Public Relations 

(904) 620-2102 

The University of North Florida will host a Cybersecurity Awareness Showcase from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, and Friday, Oct. 21, at the University Center on campus. This three-day event is geared towards cybersecurity professionals in health care, law enforcement, auditing and utilities, but the general public is invited to attend. 

Cybersecurity isn’t just for techies. Come hear about current computer security issues from people who deal with these problems for a living. Instead of organizations reacting to an issue, they can prepare ahead of time by using information they learn from industry experts.  

“The important thing is that the showcase brings together groups that don’t usually interact—the techies and non-techies,” said Dr. Layne Wallace, a UNF associate professor of Computing and event organizer. “Additionally, the topics that will be discussed are intended to provide practical information that organizations and individuals can use immediately from recognized leaders in cybersecurity.” 

Some of the topics that will be covered during the showcase include “Forensic Analysis: An Information Systems Audit on Steroids,” “Dissecting a Worm,” “How I Pwn Your Network: A Chat with a Social Engineer,” “SharePoint Deployment and Governance Using COBIT 4.1,” and much more, all led by industry experts, including the FBI, Lender Processing Services, Accretive Solutions, Check Point Software Technologies and Harris IT Services, to name a few.  

Sponsors of the Cybersecurity Awareness Showcase are the UNF College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, UNF Coggin College of Business, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Jacksonville Chapter; Infragard Jacksonville; and the Northeast Florida Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association. 

The showcase costs $50 per day for the discussion sessions. There will be two, four-hour hands-on sessions with experts for $200 or $150 for security association members. These activity sessions will be on “Network Packet Analysis” and “Web App Security Testing.” 

Additionally, a computer security competition is available for $100 per team. This is a team cybersecurity defense competition, where each team will defend a mock enterprise computing environment, while a red team tests those defenses. The enterprise computing environment will focus on enterprise and Web application defenses in addition to computing system defenses. Certain compromises have been made between reality and competition due to the compressed period of time. 

To register for the event, go to http://www.unf.edu/secawareshowcase. For more information, contact Dr. Layne Wallace, UNF School of Computing, at (904) 620-2985. 

-UNF-