Fireside Chat: An Overview of Cyber Warfare Challenges - CAA Fall 2023 Conference Cyber Warfare

This year the conference was titled: "Cyber Warfare" and presented an overview of cyber warfare challenges, the emerging trilateral partnership: China, North Korea, and Russia, and cyber methodologies and vulnerabilities.

Watch here. 

Speaker: CISA's Executive Director Brandon Wales

Brandon Wales is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) first Executive Director, serving as the senior career executive helping oversee execution of CISA operations. He is responsible for leading long-term strategy development, managing CISA-wide policy initiatives and ensuring effective operational collaboration across the Agency.

In February 2022, Wales was appointed as the lead for the Federal Government’s domestic preparedness and response related to the Russian-Ukraine crisis. In this capacity, Wales was responsible for establishing and leading an interagency Unified Coordination Group (UCG) to ensure unity of effort, building U.S. government-wide strategic objectives, identifying and resolving gaps in operations and interagency coordination, and coordinating with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials, as well as representatives of private sector and non-governmental entities. Wales’ experience within and understanding of the Department is both broad and deep.

He served as the Director of the DHS Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (OCIA), which provided integrated analysis of cyber and physical risks to the Nation’s critical infrastructure.

Moderator: Ambassador G. Philip Hughes

Ambassador Philip Hughes served as the US Ambassador to Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines from November 1990 until July 1993. Prior to this ambassadorial appointment, Ambassador Hughes served as Executive Secretary of the National Security Council in the White House during 1989 and 1990. His previous Executive Branch public service included appointments as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement (1988-1989), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs (1986-1988), Director for Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council staff (1985-1986), Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1981-1985), and Assistant Director for Intelligence Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1979-1981). Ambassador Hughes held the position of Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC in 1978-1979 and began his career as an Assistant Analyst in the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-1977).