NAC-ISSA Rocket Secure
October 17, 2025
8:30AM – 4PM
Calhoun Community College,
Huntsville Campus
Rocket Secure is an annual event dedicated to exploring the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in cybersecurity.
This conference attracts a cyber professional, industry experts, researchers, vendors, and sponsors from around the Tennessee Valley.
00
Months
22
Days
06
Hours
09
Minutes
Rocket Secure
Rocket Secure is NAC-ISSA’s fall conference and is being refreshed to include additional tracks and sessions. We will see you on October 17th, 2025 with a new feel.
Planned Tracks
| Beginner |
| Intermediate |
| Advanced |
| Student (High School) |
Attendee Registration
Rocket Secure 2025
Attendee Cost
$20
Rocket Secure Registration
Presentations
| Presenter | Topic | Summary |
| Jeremy Blevins | Leveraging the DoD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) to Prepare Students for Success | In an increasingly digital world, the demand for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals is at an all-time high. The Department of Defense Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) offers a comprehensive and standardized approach to identifying the necessary skills and competencies required for various cybersecurity roles. This presentation will explore how academic institutions and training programs can leverage the DCWF as a foundation to create targeted, industry-relevant curricula that align with the needs of both students and the cybersecurity workforce. Attendees will learn how to tailor their courses and training programs using the DCWF as a roadmap for developing clear and measurable course objectives that reflect the real-world skills employers demand. By aligning course content with the specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and tasks (KSATs) outlined in the DCWF, educators can better prepare students for success in cybersecurity careers, ensuring they are equipped with the expertise needed to meet the challenges of an evolving cyber landscape. This session will provide practical strategies for integrating the DCWF into course design, from introductory-level courses to advanced technical training. Additionally, it will demonstrate how to bridge the gap between academia and industry, enabling students to transition seamlessly into the workforce. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on how to use the DCWF to create a cyber workforce that is not only knowledgeable but also highly capable of tackling the nation’s most pressing cybersecurity challenges. Key takeaways: Understanding the structure and key components of the DoD Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) Practical methods for aligning course objectives with the competencies outlined in the DCWF Strategies for developing students’ skills to meet current industry demands How to create a curriculum that enhances student success in the cybersecurity field and prepares them for in-demand roles This presentation is ideal for educators, curriculum developers, and cybersecurity professionals who are eager to strengthen their programs and better prepare the next generation of cybersecurity experts. |
| Jeremy Blevins | It AIn’t Cheating If Used Properly | This session is a fun and interactive talk that shows students how to use AI tools like ChatGPT the right way. Learn how to stay ethical, avoid cheating, and think critically in the age of AI—with real-time demos, games, and surprising examples. |
| Andrew Staton | Houdini and Social Engineering | |
| Chris Shrout | TBD | |
| Michael Portera | Analyzing Chinese Devices from Amazon | |
| Marc Sachs | Securing the Power Grid | The North American Power Grid, which spans the USA, Canada, and a portion of Mexico, is the largest machine ever constructed. To control and balance such a complex system requires a significant amount of computing power and a necessary exposure to external threats. This talk explains how the grid works, outlines various threats to the grid, and details specific grid security techniques and tactics. |
| Sam Williams | BountyBench: Using AI agents to attack and defend real-world systems | AI agents have the opportunity to significantly impact the cybersecurity landscape. Yet, some central questions stand—how can I make them useful right now, and how do we accurately quantify the risk and progress of our AI agents? This talk will explore BountyBench, the first framework to capture offensive and defensive cyber-capabilities in evolving real-world systems, as well as AI agents and their current use cases. |
| Harvey Lange & Jack Harston | A Social Experiment | From an inside joke at work, an idea sprung up about how ‘real’ someone could create a fake person with a digital footprint and physical evidence. Turns out, pretty real – and it was WAY easier than we thought! Here’s what we managed to pull off with a little help from our talented friends, coworkers, and some of you in the Huntsville cyber community. |
| Harold Finch | TBD | |
| Shama Patel | Cyber Risks and Scam Awareness | |
| Daniel Akridge | Primer on CMMC | CMMC requirements and how to solve problems so companies can continue to pursue DoD contracts starting in FY 2026. |
| David Cole & Bryce Heise | Hands-on Demonstrations using Marcraft Cybersecurity Essentials hardware | Calhoun’s CIS lab assistants will be walking attendees through hands-on lab exercises that explore industrial IT security, physical asset protection, and an introduction to ethical hacking tools. Multiple sessions will be run throughout the event, and seating will be limited. |
| David Noever, Grant Rosario, and Forrest McKee | Seven Lessons from Deploying AI-Augmented Cybersecurity in a Federal Cloud Environment | Federal security teams increasingly face the challenge of monitoring massive volumes of log data in real-time, particularly in environments such as Azure and AWS GovCloud where compliance requirements are stringent and operational stakes are high. Our team confronted this challenge head-on, managing multiple daily Apache, Tomcat, php, and RedHat system logs that exceeded the practical limits of human review. This presentation offers seven key lessons from the deployment of a local large language model–Cisco’s Foundation-sec model — to enhance log analysis within an air-gapped production GovCloud environment. Unlike controlled lab settings, live operations in a federal context must account for unique constraints including FedRAMP compliance, limited compute resources such as no GPU, and potentially sensitive data streams. Our six-month implementation demonstrates that when deployed thoughtfully, AI can act as a significant force multiplier—improving detection capabilities, accelerating response times, and reducing analyst burden without compromising security or compliance. We will detail how we enabled AI access to log streams, optimized processing pipelines for high-volume, low-latency analysis, and integrated AI outputs into existing workflows to ensure analyst adoption and trust. The result: an AI-driven increase in log coverage, a reduced likelihood of false positives, an order-of-magnitude improvement in event response times, and smarter mitigation strategies without adding human burden. As Federal, state and local agencies modernize cybersecurity operations under resource constraints and evolving threats, our experience provides a replicable framework for AI integration in regulated environments. The presentation focuses on actionable insights and a set of practical guidelines for introducing AI into cloud security architectures—highlighting which use cases yield the greatest return, and where human expertise remains in short supply. |
| William Sinclair | Hacking the Hackers: How to get most out of your penetration test | In today’s cyber security ecosystem penetration tests are a common occurrence, yet many organizations fail to extract their full value. This session explores how to plan, scope, and leverage penetration testing to drive meaningful outcomes. Attendees will learn how to align pentest objectives with business risk, select the correct provider, plan the engagements, and interpret findings beyond the report to maximize security Return On Investment (ROI). Through real-world examples and actionable insights, this talk empowers security leaders and technical teams to transform pentest engagements into catalysts for measurable improvement instead of just checking a box. |