New Federal Strategies, Rising Risk From Iran Top Cyber Themes
Lohrmann on Cybersecurity
When cybersecurity experts from the public and private sectors gathered this week, AI and critical infrastructure took a back seat to frontline defense in light of recent international headlines.
New Federal Strategies, Rising Risk From Iran Top Cyber Themes
Lohrmann on Cybersecurity
When cybersecurity experts from the public and private sectors gathered this week, AI and critical infrastructure took a back seat to frontline defense in light of recent international headlines.
March 15, 2026 •
Dan Lohrmann
Shutterstock/Blue Planet Studio
The third annual Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit was held in Washington, D.C., from March 9-11, and this year’s event was the largest so far, with more federal, state and local government leaders, private-sector companies and cybersecurity professionals from across the nation attending.
I attended and was a moderator for four sessions, and I was once again very impressed with this cyber summit for the level of available interactions and deep cyber discussions that took place between federal and state, local and education organizational leaders. I think these interactions are especially important at this time because of the ongoing war in Iran as well as the reality that the federal government will not be attending the RSA Conference this year in San Francisco that begins on March 23.
This blog is dedicated to exploring some of the top themes and messaging that came out of the event for 2026.
TOP THEMES AT BILLINGTON CYBER EVENT
Back in mid-February, the top themes coming into the summit were initially projected to be AI and critical infrastructure protection. These sessions covered these topics:
Mar 10: Understanding Today’s Cybersecurity Adversaries —This panel of public- and private-sector experts explores how cyber adversaries are taking advantage of a climate that is more digitally connected and dependent upon smarter, automated and geo-dispersed functions.
Mar 10: Getting Data Ready for AI — This panel will discuss the key steps in AI data preparation and why they are essential to effectively preparing data for use by AI systems.
Mar 10: Protecting Software Supply Chains — Panelists examine the growing challenges of securing the software supply chain, discussing recent threats, emerging regulations, and best practices for ensuring transparency, trust, and resilience across the technology ecosystem.
Mar 11: State of Cyber in Secondary Education — This session explores the current state of cybersecurity in secondary schools, where limited resources and growing digital dependence create unique challenges. Leaders will discuss recent incidents, evolving threats, and effective strategies for safeguarding student data, learning platforms, and administrative systems.
Mar 11: Addressing Cloud Security Threats — Bad actors continue to find new vulnerabilities in the way that organizations are leveraging cloud technology. This panel of experts will explore learnings in terms of persistent cloud attack methodologies and how to mitigate them.
NEW FEDERAL CYBER STRATEGY STEALS THE SHOW
“The goal of the pilot programs is to ‘make sure that we can deploy new technology much more quickly than we’ve done in the past,’ National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said on Monday during an event hosted by USTelecom.
“Months before, FBI assistant director Brett Leatherman said that he was seeing increased attack attempts against US digital infrastructure from Iran, adding that any successful cyber attack affecting critical technology systems would probably be considered an act of war.
“In its 2025 digital defense report, Microsoft also warned about cyber crime originating from Iran.”
“State, local, tribal and territory (SLTT) governments continue to raise questions about what effects the war in Iran could have on U.S. cybersecurity, and on Thursday discussed takeaways from the March 11 cyber attack on Stryker.
“MS-ISAC analysts said afterward that the Stryker attack was of concern for various reasons. Iranian and Iran-linked hackers often attack the health-care sector, in which SLTTs have ownership. Those hackers also target public schools and municipally owned critical infrastructure.”
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Acting Director and Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Nick Anderson (left) in a fireside chat at the 2026 Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit.Dan Lohrmann
NEW CISA ACTING DIRECTOR ANDERSON FIRESIDE CHAT
CISA’s new Acting Director Nick Anderson also spoke at the event, and as the former CISO for Vermont, Nick did a great job of articulating the importance of the new cyber strategy to state and local governments and others.
I wrote this post on that session on LinkedIn. Here is an excerpt: “I was impressed with the comments by Nicholas Andersen, who is the Acting CISA Director, at the Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit yesterday morning. Really nice job.
“Nick Andersen was the CISO in Vermont, and he understands the state and local cyber challenges better than most. He is smart, articulate, precise and even funny. It was great to catch up with him after his remarks.
“His main points were to highlight the president’s new cybersecurity strategy, which I will write about more this weekend.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
CybersecurityFederal Government
Dan Lohrmann
Daniel J. Lohrmann is an internationally recognized cybersecurity leader, technologist, keynote speaker and author.
See More Stories by Dan Lohrmann
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Lohrmann on Cybersecurity authored by Lohrmann on Cybersecurity. Read the original post at: https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/new-federal-strategies-rising-risk-from-iran-top-cyber-themes
About Author
