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Research & Education Track:

NERD (New Emerging Research & Development) 

For those affiliated with the VICEROY program, contact your institution's VICEROY representative to learn about opportunities to highlight research at HammerCon! 

Links to Other Tracks:

Schedule Updates Ongoing

Notes: Schedule subject to change. ⚡︎ indicates "lightning talks" (15 minute slot to share ideas but no Q&A).

Check back for updates to speakers and times!

0945: Track opening

1000: Questions Leaders Should Be Asking About AI

Eager to bring AI into your organization? Before you make the decision to build or buy, you need to understand how AI works, the types of capabilities it presents, and the potential risks and rewards AI presents. In this provocative and likely irreverent presentation, retired Brigadier General Greg Touhill, the first Chief Information Security Officer of the US government, and now the director of the world renowned CERT division at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, will discuss AI lessons learned from the decades of CMU research that led to the creation of AI technology and share his thoughts on the questions leaders should be asking about AI before making decisions on how and when to leverage AI systems.  Learn how to tell the difference between a potential game-changer to gain decisive advantage on the battlefield and a potential dumpster fire that could leave you broke, disappointed, and defeated.

1030: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap ⚡︎

Discuss the insider secrets of battle tested techniques on how to conduct cyber team training exercises that are more impactful and beneficial to the team participants while keeping costs low and maximizing value.

1045: The Role of LLMs (Generative AI) in Building Secure Software ⚡︎

Separate the hype from the reality. This session provides a systematic review of the performance of several popular LLMs (Large Language Models) such as ChatGPT3.5, ChatGPT 4, ChatGPT4o and GitHub CoPilot. Thousands of source programs written in C, C++ and Java were given to these systems to evaluate how well the LLM could detect, and possibly correct errors.  The results – the good, the bad and the ugly – are summarized and compared with the results of other studies. 

1100: The Argument for Molecular Level Comprehensive Information Security

This presentation discusses the need for information security (INFOSEC) at the molecular level to protect our genetic information in light of the increasing use and significant advancements of gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9. The proliferation of these technologies, coupled with tools from crippling ransomware attacks, has raised fears about the security and loss of integrity of genetic data. Research has demonstrated that we will soon have the internet run through our bodies, and we will be another end device in the larger world of IOT. Consider the consequences of a malicious actor launching a biocyber attack that executed a DDOS of your brain or another vital organ. Implementing Comprehensive INFOSEC at the molecular level is imperative to protect individual privacy, thwart malicious actors, and help prevent errors and accidental mutations in genetic data that could result in false diagnoses or incorrect treatment plans, potentially risking patients' lives.

1130: Human Digital Twins

Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical objects or systems that exist in the digital world, accurately reflecting their properties, behavior, and performance. However, significant security risks are posed by the emergence of Human Digital Twins (HDTs) – digital replicas of individuals created by combining detailed personal data with advanced algorithms, allowing for highly personalized modeling and simulation. These HDTs could be exploited by malicious actors to undermine U.S. homeland security in various ways, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, emergency management, border control, election influence, synthetic biology threats, and kinetic attacks. This effort developed a risk assessment framework to evaluate these national security threats and to identify potential mitigations.

1200: Lunch Served

1300: Cyber Academic Engagement Office (CAEO) Overview ⚡︎

1315: Cyber Service Academy (CSA) Scholarship Overview ⚡︎

1325: DoDI 8140.03 Update ⚡︎

1335: National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) Update ⚡︎

1345: College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC) Update ⚡︎

1355: Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ (VICEROY) Overview

1405: Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ (VICEROY) Scholar Research Session

1500: Senior Military College (SMC) Cyber Institutes

1530: Cyber is a Social Science ⚡︎

While often taught as part of the computer sciences, there is an argument to be made that cyber is more closely related to the social sciences. This talk will explore how organizations can improve their risk management by bringing in some social sciences thinking, and perhaps convince you, too, that cyber is, at its core, a social science. 

1545: National Cyber Risk to Resilience Moonshot

1600: End of track. Movement to main track for 1630 closing ceremony.

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