As a busy fall begins, we are already recapping the success of some exciting events, and announcing more coming down the line.  Thank you for joining us in our mission to increase cyber resilience in our beautiful state! 

OCCoE and Portland Community College’s Computer Information Systems Department are collaborating to offer high school students an inspiring day about cybersecurity careers and educational pathways. Oregon Youth Cyber Con is scheduled from 10am – 4pm on Friday, October 10 – Oregon’s statewide teacher in-service training day – so students won’t miss classes. Student registration for the free event at PCC’s Sylvania campus is open now!

Industry can still support this outreach program by leading a one-hour breakout session, donating swag for door prizes, and offering financial support to pay for student lunches and parking. Contact Meg Kilmer at nwcybercamp@pdx.edu or (503) 725-3187 if you are interested in this or our future K-12 educational programs.

"Best Tabletop Exercise I've Been To" at OAGITM Fall Conference Available Again at Oregon Cyber Resilience Summit 10/7

Thanks to a great partnership with OAGITM, OCCoE and LBL Cybersecurity hosted their first joint cybersecurity tabletop exercise (TTX) with huge success.  The event received glowing reviews, including multiple participants claiming it was the best TTX they had ever attended.  Other attendees shared their thoughts:

"Easy to follow. Great information and how to use it."

"The facilitators did an amazing job keeping the pace and content interesting."

"Good energy levels and willingness to help."         "Networking was incredible."

Join us for the next one 10/7 before the Oregon Cyber Resilience Summit in Eugene. 

This tabletop exercise is designed for Oregon’s public-sector IT leaders, including those from School Districts, Special Districts, and other local government agencies, but anyone working in public sector is welcome to join. The simulation centers on a cyber incident that disrupts essential services, guiding participants through cross-agency coordination, communication challenges, and practical incident response strategies.

Private Sector Critical Infrastructure Partner Strategic Briefing 9/24

OCCoE Director Birol Yeşilada presented virtually nationwide alongside an FBI Supervisory Special Agent partner at the Private Sector Critical Infrastructure Partner Strategic Briefing on September 24, 2025.  Put on by the Oregon Department of Emergency Management and the Oregon TITAN Fusion Center, this event gave over 150 private sector critical infrastructure, state, and federal partners an opportunity to learn from Dr. Yeşilada on a topic very important to Oregon: “Gray Area Attacks: How a foreign-based cyber-attack might look in the Pacific Northwest, and why issues with attribution may complicate a response."  Please reach out to occoe@pdx.edu if you would like more information on this presentation. 

OCCoE's Research Seminar Series showcases exciting cybersecurity research taking place at each of our founding institutions.

Reminder: On October 3, 2025, OSU's Dr. Vincent Immler will be presenting virtually on "Hardware Security and AI Governance."  

On November 7, 2025, UO's Dr. Suyash Gupta will be presenting virtually on "HotStuff-1: Linear Consensus with One-Phase Speculation."

In this talk, Dr. Gupta will introduce his recent work, presented at SIGMOD 2025. Dr. Gupta's team designed a new BFT consensus protocol, HotStuff-1, that improves the latency of HotStuff-2 by two network-hops while maintaining linear communication complexity against faults. Additionally, HotStuff-1 incorporates an incentive-compatible leader rotation regime that motivates leaders to commit consensus decisions promptly.

If you'd like to attend a seminar, please email us at occoe@pdx.edu to receive the link!