New Federal Strategies, Rising Risk From Iran Top Cyber Themes
New Federal Strategies, Rising Risk From Iran Top Cyber Themes
Publish Date: 2026-03-15 05:57:00
Source Domain: www.govtech.com
The third annual Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit was held in Washington, D.C., from March 9-11, and this year’s event was the largest so far, with more federal, state and local government leaders, private-sector companies and cybersecurity professionals from across the nation attending.
I attended and was a moderator for four sessions, and I was once again very impressed with this cyber summit for the level of available interactions and deep cyber discussions that took place between federal and state, local and education organizational leaders. I think these interactions are especially important at this time because of the ongoing war in Iran as well as the reality that the federal government will not be attending the RSA Conference this year in San Francisco that begins on March 23.
This blog is dedicated to exploring some of the top themes and messaging that came out of the event for 2026.
TOP THEMES AT BILLINGTON CYBER EVENT
Back in mid-February, the top themes coming into the summit were initially projected to be AI and critical infrastructure protection. These sessions covered these topics:
- Mar 10: Understanding Today’s Cybersecurity Adversaries —This panel of public- and private-sector experts explores how cyber adversaries are taking advantage of a climate that is more digitally connected and dependent upon smarter, automated and geo-dispersed functions.
- Mar 10: Getting Data Ready for AI — This panel will discuss the key steps in AI data preparation and why they are essential to effectively preparing data for use by AI systems.
- Mar 10: Protecting Software Supply Chains — Panelists examine the growing challenges of securing the software supply chain, discussing recent threats, emerging regulations, and best practices for ensuring transparency, trust, and resilience across the technology ecosystem.
- Mar 11: State of Cyber in Secondary Education — This session explores the…
