Wright State hosts cyber warfare conference

The university worked with the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Center for Cyperspace Research to bring the experts to the conference, officials said. AFIT, a post-graduate school, is at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which hosted the event in 2010.

Maj. Gen. Courtney P. Carr, adjutant general of the Indiana Air and Army National Guard and a keynote speaker, emphasized the importance of working with academia to tackle cyber warfare challenges.

“What I do know is there’s a serious threat and all aspects of (the Department of Defense) have been subject to attacks and it’s required our cyber mission forces to come in and help mitigate those vulnerabilities,” he said.

National Guardsmen from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are part of a cyber protection team that will deploy to Maryland on a homeland security mission, he said.

The Indiana National Guard operates the Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex, a 1,000-acre “cyber range” in south central Indiana that trains troops and others in cyber warfare scenarios, such as protecting or gaining control of power and water treatment plant operating systems, or electronic cell blocks in a jail.

Juan Lopez Jr, an AFIT cyber security research engineer, said attendees at the conference had access to”cutting edge” research on cyberspace technical challenges.

Last year, the conference was in Boston and will be in Washington, D.C, next year, Nugus said.