It has been a very busy summer for OCCoE programs, and so much more to come as we prep for fall!  

For those who missed our last newsletter, here is a recap on what to expect from our outreach as we continue to keep you updated on the pursuit of the Center's mission.  

OCCoE's mission to enhance cyber resilience across Oregon falls into 4 categories: 

These newsletters will include our most relevant recaps, updates, and announcements related to each category, as well as a highlighted news story and a list of past and upcoming OCCoE related events. 

OCCoE is building connections in our Oregon cyber community!  At our Certificate in Building Cyber Resilience Graduate Symposium on 8/15/25, graduates of the program and high school students from our NW Cyber Camps (see recap on how all 7 of these went below!) gathered to share their work and learn from each other. Senator Ron Wyden made a special guest appearance to support our community, as we came together under one overarching, cross-organizational and cross-generational goal: to enhance cybersecurity in Oregon.

Students AND Teachers at Summer Camp this Year! 

Seven Oregon college campuses were home to NW Cyber Camp this summer, challenging more than 130 high school students to solve a workplace cyber mystery. The simulation was an engaging way to learn about cybersecurity occupations and practice using the OSINT, cryptography and log analysis tools they learned during camp. Students will also be invited to an online Capture the Flag competition and tabletop exercises and conferences with cybersecurity professionals.

Two of OCCoE's founding universities hosted camps for teachers to also hone in on their cybersecurity knowledge and teaching strategies.  OSU hosted middle grade teachers at GenCyber Educator Camp, and the UO hosted high school computer science teachers at their Train the Trainer camp as part of the Nurturing Inclusive Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Program. 

Free "Save the Data!" Dinner Tabletop Exercise for Oregon's City Officials at LOC Conference 10/2/25

In conjunction with the League of Oregon Cities Annual Conference being held in Portland, the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is hosting a free cybersecurity tabletop exercise (TTX) for Oregon's city officials--dinner included!  In partnership with Rubrik, this exercise is designed to arm public sector teams with a practical understanding of the mechanics of an attack and basic knowledge of the legal, regulatory, financial, and organizational aspects of recovering from an attack.  And it's meant to be fun!  Join for a couple of hours of learning together over dinner from 6:00pm-8:00pm, after the conference happy hour but before the mixer!  

Free Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise before Oregon Cyber Resilience Summit 10/7/25

This tabletop exercise, presented in partnership with LBL Cybersecurity and the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, is designed for Oregon’s public-sector IT leaders, including those from School Districts, Special Districts, and other local government agencies. The simulation centers on a cyber incident that disrupts essential services, guiding participants through cross-agency coordination, communication challenges, and practical incident response strategies.

UO's Cyber Risk Clinic

The University of Oregon's Cyber Risk Clinic trains the next generation of cybersecurity leaders and provides access to personnel and materials to help evaluate personal or institutional security. 

Career Expo and Cybersecurity Summit for Youth and Young Professionals 10/10/25

Presented in partnership with the Technology Association of Oregon, NW Cyber, and OCCoE, be on the look out for this year's career expo and summit centered around cybersecurity career pathways for youth and young professionals looking to find their next step.  This will be a free event hosted in Portland, OR.    

OCCoE's Research Seminar series will kick off this fall to showcase even more of the research taking place at each of our founding institutions.

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

From Pay-TV, to the smart grid, voting machines, AI governance, and many more -- there is a need for strong protections even if the adversary is in physical control of the device. In this talk, I will provide a brief review of the field of hardware security and how it pertains to today's challenges in AI governance. In particular, how to provide the strongest possible physical guarantees to prevent extraction of secrets from the hardware. This is part of one of our ongoing research projects for which I will introduce the concept of a Physical Unclonable Function as one of the building blocks that is destined to solve some of the presented challenges. Additional challenges will be presented that are thus far unsolved.

This talk will be complemented by a brief overview of other ongoing work in the PACIFIC Lab (Privacy, Applied Cryptography, Intelligence, and Forensics In Chips) which includes aspects such as efficient testing against a new type of fault-injection attack and better performing True Random Number Generators (TRNGs), both of which are a teaser of recently published papers.

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