Cybersecurity Summit Attracts National Experts to Mississippi College

Cybersecurity Summit to be held on April 10 at Mississippi College

The USA’s leading experts on information theft and other crimes rocking the world will address Mississippi College’s Cybersecurity Summit.

Set for April 10, the second annual conference on the Clinton campus is expected to draw about 250 people from businesses, schools, the medical field and government agencies.

Speakers will include: Tobias Klauder, chief operating officer with ModusBox. It is a global finance-technology development and integration services provider. The Bellevue, Washington resident recently served as director of IT integration at Microsoft.

Other speakers are J. Craig Lowery, vice president for analysis at Gartner’s technology and service provider group. A Mississippi College graduate, Lowery served as a professor and director of MC’s graduate school program in computer science during much of the 1990s.

Also booked: Joshua Barton, a veteran of 22 years in the cybersecurity field who now works for Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. Joseph Hagerman, deputy chief scientist with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association along with Mark Goldman of Atlanta, co-founder and CEO of Group Salus, are among other conference presenters.

Cybersecurity is an immense problem confronting businesses, governments, medical professionals, college campuses and billions of credit card users. Threats posed by identity theft loom bigger than ever.

MC computer science professor Melissa Wiggins points to cyberspace as the new battlefield. “We bring technology into our homes and lives with no thought of making sure it is secure.”

Children, she said, “are at risk of not only losing their identity but are in danger of becoming victims of human trafficking and recruitment from terrorist groups.”

MC offers a graduate program and certificate program in cybersecurity studies, a booming field at colleges nationwide. American Hospital Association officials say their facilities nationwide face cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

The Cybersecurity Summit is open to the public and professionals. President Blake Thompson will welcome visitors at Anderson Hall at 8 a.m. Wednesday following a conference breakfast.

The 2019 conference seeks to “engage, educate and raise awareness about cybersecurity across the nation,” organizers say. Job prospects for the cybersecurity industry across the USA look good.

For additional details go to https://mc.edu/cybersecurity or contact professor Melissa Wiggins at 601-925-3874 or mwiggins@mc.edu