Cybersecurity Days Increases Cyber Knowledge at University and in Community

Ohio State’s Cybersecurity Days was born from the need to share knowledge and best practices to form a collective defense from cybercriminals. Held annually, the event works to stimulate creativity, critical thinking and problem solving to help the university and community members operate more resiliently.

This year, Cybersecurity Days held a colleague forum for university faculty, staff and students and a separate community forum that was open to the public. The virtual colleague forum, which took place on Wednesday, October 19, was attended by almost 600 people from across the university and medical center. Attendees enjoyed presentations and dialogue with cybersecurity leaders, including Rich Nagle, the university’s associate vice president and chief information security officer, and Tre Smith, chief information security officer at the medical center. Participants also contributed to break out sessions designed to innovate solutions to the university’s cybersecurity challenges.

The virtual community forum was held the next week, on October 26, and was attended by 280 members of the university community and the public. They heard from industry leaders and cybersecurity professionals about the resources available for everyone to improve their defenses.

Speakers for the community forum included Amy Geiger, the North American cyber security lead at Accenture; Terin Williams, a cyber security advisor for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; and Helen Patton, chief information security officer in the Security Business Group at Cisco. The event also featured sessions on public-private partnerships and the importance of cybersecurity education with Lori Mesi, who works in Secondary Pathways and Partnerships at Dublin City Schools; Scott Sweet, a teacher at Dublin City Schools; and Connie Matthews Reynolds, the founder and chief executive officer of ReynCon. Sessions held for this public community forum were recorded and are available on the Cybersecurity Days 2022 Community Forum YouTube playlist