FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate will deliver the keynote address during the fifth annual Boston Conference on Cyber Security, streaming live beginning at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3.
Abbate, who last month was named deputy director, supervising the FBI’s domestic and international investigative and intelligence activities, will discuss the FBI’s new cyber strategy, the current threat landscape, and the importance of strong partnerships in combatting the cyber threat.
Abbate’s keynote address will be followed by two panel discussions. The first panel, “The State of Cyber and National Security,” will feature FBI Boston Division Special Agent in Charge Joseph R. Bonavolonta. The second panel, “2021 Cyber Threat Intelligence Index and Cost of a Data Breach: Methods and Processes to Secure Your Business and Data,” will feature Nick Rossman, global threat intelligence lead with IBM’s Security X-Force.
The three-hour virtual conference will bring together cybersecurity leaders from the academic, analytic, operations, research, corporate, national security, and law enforcement arenas to coordinate their efforts to create a more secure cyberspace.
The conference is the result of a partnership between the FBI and the Masters in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance Program at BC’s Woods College of Advancing Studies.
- Who: FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate
- What: Keynote address on cyber threats and security
- Where: Virtual event for registered guests
- When: Noon, Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Media are asked to contact Boston College or the FBI to confirm attendance and receive a link for the conference live stream.
Please contact:
- Ed Hayward, Boston College Office of University Communications: ed.hayward@bc.edu; (617) 552-4826 or (617) 922-8024.
- Kristen Setera, FBI Boston Division, Office of Public Affairs: kmsetera@fbi.gov; (857) 386-2905
Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division says, “Across the United States, businesses and individuals lost approximately $3.5 billion to cybercriminals last year while reporting more incidents of Internet crime to the FBI than any other year. Here in the Boston Division, victims suffered a total estimated loss of $50 million. Virtually every national security threat and crime problem we come across is cyber-based or digitally facilitated, and we’re very much aware of the urgent need to address it. Our partnership with Boston College is part of our ongoing effort to strengthen the relationships between law enforcement, private industry, and academia in order to better address the increasingly complex cyber threats we’re all facing.”
Kevin R. Powers, J.D., founder and director of BC’s Cybersecurity Policy and Governance Program and an assistant professor of the Practice at Boston College’s Law School and the Carroll School of Management’s Business Law and Society Program says, “We are honored to partner with the FBI to host the fifth annual Boston Conference on Cyber Security at BC. Although virtual this year, BCCS 2021 will continue to expand upon and strengthen the relationships between government, private industry, and academia to address the varying cyber threats, whether by nation states, cyber criminals, hacktivists, or terrorists. This is needed more than ever given COVID-19 and the move to the virtual workforce. Once again, BC is taking the lead in fulfilling its mission of developing and educating leaders to meet the world’s most pressing issues, and we’re doing so by partnering with the FBI to discuss ways to strengthen cyber and national security to not only protect government and industry networks and critical infrastructure, but also our private personal data.”