Governor Larry Hogan convened a cybersecurity summit at the Maryland State House in Annapolis focused on coordinated federal, state, and private sector efforts to prepare for and address cybersecurity threats.
The summit brought together senior government officials, including leaders from the White House, Congress, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the FBI, as well as governors, academic leaders, and private sector experts.
At the close of the summit, Governor Hogan enacted a range of initiatives to strengthen Maryland’s cyber ecosystem and protect the state’s critical infrastructure, including a new partnership with the NSA, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to establish a new Maryland Institute for Innovative Computing, and a statewide privacy framework to govern the way the state secures citizens’ personal information.
Earlier this year, Governor Hogan wrote a USA Today op-ed urging Washington to “wake up” and take specific actions to address cyber threats.
The cybersecurity summit builds on the successful Annapolis Infrastructure Summit held in April that included governors, U.S. senators, and leaders of the U.S. House Problem Solvers Caucus and ultimately helped produce the bipartisan infrastructure bill currently being debated in Congress.
Although neither initial infrastructure proposal from President Biden or Senate Republicans even mentioned “cybersecurity” or “hacking,” Governor Hogan’s infrastructure proposal as chair of the National Governors Association recommended that protecting America’s infrastructure be one of the key four pillars for any federal infrastructure bill. The current bipartisan proposal will allocate grants to state and local governments to strengthen cybersecurity. According to Governor Hogan, “in the 21st century, America’s infrastructure is only as strong as it’s protected from cyber threats.”
Watch Governor Hogan’s Full Cybersecurity Summit Here.
Participants in today’s summit included:
Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor, Cyber & Emerging Tech at National Security Council, The White House
Congressman John M. Katko, Ranking Member on the House Committee on Homeland Security (virtual)
George C. Barnes, Deputy Director and Senior Civilian Leader, National Security Agency
Herbert J. Stapleton, Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division, Cyber Operations Branch, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Admiral Dennis C. Blair, USN, Ret., Former United States Director of National Intelligence (virtual)
Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President, UMBC
Governor Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas, NGA Chair (virtual)
Governor John Bel Edwards, Louisiana, NGA Resource Center for State Cybersecurity (virtual)
Ron Gula, Gula Tech Adventures
Timothy Blute, Director, Center for Best Practices, NGA
General Keith Alexander, USA, Ret., Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO, Iron Net
Daniel R. Ennis, Executive Director of the University of Maryland Cyber Initiative and CEO of DRE Consulting
Kevin Perkins, Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Exelon CISO
Dr. Mohan Suntha, President and CEO, University of Maryland Medical System
Dr. Phyllis Schneck, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Northrop Grumman (virtual)
Tina Williams-Koroma, President and CEO, TCecure CEO (virtual)
Robert Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Dragos
Keith Bowman, Dean, College of Engineering and Information Technology, UMBC