This year’s Summit training and plenary sessions reiterated some observations from previous years such as the high value of community member interaction and knowledge share. Several presentations again noted the value of federated identity management in facilitating project collaboration. Also emphasized was the importance of workforce development but with a new highlight on the strength that diversity brings to teams. Other emerging trends that were noted among this year’s presentations included the threat presented by the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation and a broadening of the focus on data confidentiality to include the value of data integrity
Day 1 of the Summit was dedicated to half-day and full-day training sessions. Days 2 and 3 comprised plenary presentations, panels, and keynotes that focused on the security of cyberinfrastructure projects and NSF Large Facilities. Recordings of many of the Summit sessions are available on YouTube. Slides from a subset of the presentations are also available.
With 2020’s no-cost virtual format, this year’s attendance totaled 287 (up from 143 in-person attendees in 2019), representing 142 NSF projects and 16 of the 20 NSF Large Facilities. The total attendance includes a significant increase in student participation, with 27 students attending, up from ten in 2019. For more information on the 2020 Summit student attendees, please see the Trusted CI blog post Student Program at the 2020 NSF Cybersecurity Summit. Evaluation and feedback on the 2020 Summit were very positive, with many requests to continue offering a virtual attendance option in the future. As we begin planning for the 2021 Summit, we will be mindful of the conditions and options to determine meeting formats that we think will best serve the community’s needs at that time.
