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Each year, the Institute for Cyber Security, in collaboration with IT Support, hosts Cyber Security Day. This daylong event features nationally recognized security experts as well as speakers from law enforcement, government, the security industry, and academia. Cyber Security Day is open to the public, community colleges, and neighboring universities.

The sixteenth annual Cyber Security Day was held on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, in the HUB Ohio Room on the ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â Main Campus.

Information for the Event

The sixteenth Cyber Security Day held on October 31, 2023, featured presentations from Louie Lopez, Star Hardison, Derek Mueller, Tom Dugas, Bill Balint, Raju Namburu, and Dom Glavach.  Presentation topics included cybersecurity workforce development, cybersecurity awareness month, building a cybersecurity career, advanced computing ecosystems, and active cyber defenses. 

View the 2023 event documents below, and see the guest speaker and title/abstract sections for more information. 

Event Flyer | Schedule | Brochure | Presentations | Photo Gallery

Guest Speaker Biographical Information

Louie Lopez, Director, US Department of Defense Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Louie Lopez is the director of the Department of Defense’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education and Outreach office, also known as DoD STEM, located in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense in Research and Engineering’s Science and Technology Foundations Office. Lopez is responsible for the management and execution of the Department’s pre-K through post-secondary STEM efforts under the National Defense Education Program.

Wistar (Star) Hardison, Chief of Cyber Workforce Governance Branch, US Department of Defense

Star Hardison is the chief of Cyber Workforce Governance Branch for the Department of Defense Chief Information Office in Arlington, Virginia. In this role, she oversees the policy that governs efforts to identify, recruit, retain, and develop an effective and agile cyber workforce.  A graduate of Villanova University and a proud veteran with 26 years in the US Navy, she's made significant contributions both in service and in her community.  

Derek Mueller, Cyber Security Advisor, US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Derek Mueller serves as the cyber security advisor, cyber state coordinator for Pennsylvania at the US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where he leads the effort to protect and advance the resilience of the nation’s cyber infrastructure within the critical infrastructure while working with federal, state, local, and other stakeholders to maximize collaboration and minimize risk on matters of homeland security or emergency management.

Tom Dugas, Associate Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Duquesne University

Tom Dugas is responsible for leading the information (cyber) security program to protect the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of data and systems at Duquesne University. Tom is a certified information systems security professional and is a graduate of Robert Morris University with a master's degree in communication and information systems and a bachelor's degree in business administration with majors in accounting and management information systems. In 2019, Tom was recognized as the CISO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Tom serves as a leader within the region as a co-leader of the Greater Pittsburgh CISO Group, a member of the Advisory Board for the Pittsburgh CIO Forum, and part of the Governing Body of the Pittsburgh CIO Executive Summit.

Bill Balint, Chief Information Officer, ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â

Bill Balint has 34 years of IT experience and became ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â's chief information officer in 2006. Bill has presented at more than 50 industry events at the regional, state, national, and international levels and has authored, co-authored, or been interviewed for more than 35 publications and websites via written, audio, and video formats. He is also a member of the governing board. 

Todd Cunningham, Executive Director, Information Technology Services, ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â

Todd Cunningham is responsible for the operational management and leadership of the IT Services organization at ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â. This includes the oversight of enterprise systems, network, cloud, mobile devices, customer service, etc. He has over 30 years of experience as an IT professional and has been in his current role since 2006.

Susan Koski, Chief Information Security Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group

Susan Koski serves as the chief information security officer and head of Enterprise Information Security for the PNC Financial Services Group. She is a 2023 Pittsburgh CISO of the Year winner and is a nationally recognized CISO in the financial services sector. She has presented at many major events and has appeared on various video and podcast programs. She is featured in the 2021 book Fight Fire with Fire: Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies for Today’s Leaders. Among her many achievements is converging She cyber, physical, fraud, and insider monitoring into PNC’s 24x7x365 Global Security Fusion Center. Susan is a governing board member for the Evanta Pittsburgh CIO and CISO Executive Summit and related program and is a leader in the Pittsburgh Technology Council community. She earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s in business administration from Duquesne University.

Raju Namburu, Chief Technology Officer, Information Technology Laboratory's Computational Sciences and Engineering

Raju Namburu is CTO for Information Technology Laboratory's computational sciences and engineering. In this role, he provides directions to DoD HPC Modernization office, computational sciences and engineering, and cyber research and development programs. Namburu represents DoD as a member of the US National Science and Technology Council subcommittee for the future advanced computing echo system. Prior to coming to ITL, Namburu was chief scientist, division chief, Computational Sciences Division, and director, DoD Supercomputing Resource Center at the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, US Army Research Laboratory. Namburu led various DoD scalable software development projects in computational sciences, including establishing DoD mobile network modeling institute. Namburu obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota. During his career, Namburu has worked at IBM Almaden research lab, Cray Research, and various US Army research, development, and engineering labs. Namburu has more than 100 refereed publications in journals and has presented at international conferences and symposiums. Namburu is a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

Dom Glavach, Chief Security and Technology Officer, CyberSN

Dom Glavach is the chief security officer and chief security strategist at CyberSN. In this executive role, he is responsible for leading the company’s information security strategy, policy, IT operations, security engineering, security operations, data privacy, and cyber threat detection. Prior to CyberSN, Glavach spent 20 years working with Concurrent Technologies Corporation, where he served as the chief information security officer and research fellow. He played a critical role in the company’s cyber risk management, providing cyber technical leadership and subject matter expertise to commercial and government clients. Glavach is a CISSP, an active member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Cyber Committee, chairs a subcommittee on Vehicle and Embedded Systems Cyber Security, and mentors at cybersecurity meet-ups. He has presented on various security topics to a wide range of public and government audiences, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency.  

More Information

For more information about Cyber Security Day at ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â, please contact Waleed Farag, Director, Institute for Cybersecurity, at farag@iup.edu, 724-357-7995.

Titles and Abstracts

Louie Lopez, Director, US Department of Defense Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and Wistar (Star) Hardison, Chief of Cyber Workforce Governance Branch, US Department of Defense

• Title: Cyber Security Workforce Development and the Department of Defense 
• Abstract: DoD STEM’s mission is to inspire, cultivate, and develop exceptional STEM talent through a continuum of opportunities to enrich our current and future Department of Defense workforce poised to tackle evolving defense technological challenges. By inspiring new and future talent in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, we are poised to prepare the next generation for the ever changing landscapes of threats that our nation may face, and cyber security is one such field. DoD is the largest employer of scientists and engineers in the federal government with over 60 Defense Laboratories and Engineering Centers at more than 200 locations across the country.  There are nearly 300,000 STEM professionals, with about 60,000 of the STEM workforce doing research at our Labs and Centers. In order to maintain our Nation’s competitive advantage, we require a diverse and sustainable STEM talent pool. We will discuss broadly the cyber security workforce needs for the Department of Defense.

Derek Mueller, Cyber Security Advisor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

• Title:  National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023 – How To Stay Safe Online 
• Abstract: Technology is part of everything that makes our life function—from the classroom to the office, from financial transactions to how we travel to how we communicate with family and friends. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched the Secure Our World program, a new and enduring cybersecurity awareness program aimed at engaging audiences and emphasizing the four simple steps everyone should implement and continuously improve upon.  The brief will provide resources and specific examples on steps to take to keep our devices, such as computers, phones, tablets, and other connected devices, safe and secure.  The brief will also aim to educate the audience on how to stay safe online by encouraging action and driving behavior change and incorporate many of CISA’s other awareness products and initiatives.

Tom Dugas, Associate Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Duquesne University and Bill Balint, Chief Information Officer, ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â and Todd Cunningham, Executive Director, IT Services, ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â

• Title: Building IT and Cybersecurity Careers; from Student to Executive
• Abstract: This panel discussion will provide attendees with key personal experiences, important career decisions, and tips taken from their careers spanning from undergraduates through the career ladder to their current executive-level roles.

Susan Koski, Chief Information Security Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group

• Title:  An Executive Perspective of Cybersecurity
• Abstract: Susan Koski, one of the region's most prominent chief information security officers, will provide her perspectives on cybersecurity-related topics. The talk will reflect on Susan’s established expertise in the field as the CISO at PNC and Pittsburgh CISO of the Year among the region's largest corporations. Susan was recently featured in Cybercrime Magazine and presented at the prestigious RSA Conference. Her expertise spans much of the cybersecurity industry.

Raju Namburu, Chief Technology Officer, US Army Core of Engineering - Engineering Research and Development Center 

• Title: Advanced Computing Ecosystem and Cyber Analytics
• Abstract: Advanced computing ecosystem is rapidly evolving across multiple dimensions due to the introduction of new and potentially disruptive technologies and paradigms, increased hardware heterogeneity, internet of battlefield things, data volumes, software complexity, cyber challenges, and novel approaches such as those based on AI and ML. Now, and even more so in the future, the battlespace is characterized by highly distributed processing, heterogeneous and mobile assets with limited power, communications-dominated but restricted network capacity, and operating with time-critical needs in a rapidly changing hostile cyber environment. Predictive data-intensive electromagnetic cyber analytics leveraging data from numerous sources, advanced computing ecosystem, and robust AI/ML algorithms will allow rapid and decisive action on the emerging DoD multi-domain battlefield. In this talk, I will discuss this topic including cyber programs within our lab and related research directions. I will briefly highlight summer internship opportunities within our lab.

Dom Glavach, Chief Security and Technology Officer, CyberSN

• Title:  Clean Up on Aisle 4: Active Cyber Defenses
• Abstract: Today’s cyber industry is flush with an array of protective solutions, spanning from Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to AI-powered Attack Surface Management tools. Yet, with all these technological advancements, adversaries continue to hide in plain sight, often exploiting the very complexities that were meant to thwart them. As regulatory bodies like the SEC intensify the requirements for swifter and more detailed incident reporting, and with the rapid adoptions of evolving technologies coupled with the continually shifting threat landscape demands more than just conventional detection and response mechanisms - proactive threat hunting. This session discusses the essential techniques of threat hunting, shedding light on the nuances of actively seeking out hidden adversaries beyond the existing and traditional cyber defenses. Attendees will be introduced to open-source tools and a career path to the world of threat hunting.