In this opening fireside address, a senior military leader will discuss the critical importance of critical infrastructure in ensuring that the US is postured both offensively and defensively to international conflict.

A panel of experts will discuss a recent cyberattack on a U.S. water system, highlighting lessons learned and key takeaways that can be applied across sectors.

This session will explore how supply chain attacks on IT-connected logistical and support systems could impact energy-related eco systems.

In this session, experts will discuss the impact of a large worm-like attack on multiple US transportation systems and what it means for today’s transportation systems with the advent of more advanced AI-enabled worm-building capabilities.

(Limited to 100 people)

(Limited to 100 people)

In this general session, government and private sector experts will discuss what we have learned about how the Chinese are leveraging cyber tools to conduct espionage and preposition in critical infrastructure to prepare to counter a U.S. response to a potential Taiwan invasion.

A strategic perspective on how the U.S. Government is working to defend U.S. critical infrastructure.

As the cyber threat landscape accelerates and critical infrastructure becomes increasingly digital, the U.S. faces a pivotal moment in determining how to finance, modernize, and secure the systems that keep the nation running. This panel convenes leading voices from government, industry, and global investment firms—including major infrastructure players—to assess the current state of U.S. cyber infrastructure heading into 2026. Panelists will examine where modernization efforts are succeeding, where gaps persist, and how evolving regulatory frameworks, cybersecurity mandates, and emerging technologies are reshaping priorities across the four lifeline sectors: energy, transportation, telecommunications, and water.

The discussion will also explore how large-scale investors are evaluating cyber risk as a core component of infrastructure value and long-term resilience. With many firms increasingly scrutinizing cybersecurity posture in their investment decisions, the panel will highlight how capital flows are influencing infrastructure upgrades, driving innovation, and shaping the next generation of secure, interconnected systems. Attendees will gain a forward-looking view of the investments, partnerships, and strategic decisions that will define U.S. critical infrastructure in 2026 and beyond.

In this session, panelists from yesterday’s Scenario Sessions will discuss key lessons learned from the scenarios as it relates to key cross connects and interdependencies between the various critical sectors.

As the energy and telecommunications sectors become increasingly interdependent, safeguarding the digital and physical links between them has never been more critical. This panel brings together leaders from both industries, along with federal and state cybersecurity experts, to examine the evolving risks at the intersection of grid operations and communications infrastructure.

This panel will explore how cyber-informed engineering (CIE) can strengthen operational security across the four lifeline sectors (water, energy, transportation, and telecommunications) by embedding cybersecurity principles directly into system design and function. Experts will examine the risks created by increasing interconnectivity and discuss practical strategies to reduce systemic vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

Artificial intelligence is transforming both the defensive and offensive sides of cybersecurity, ultimately reshaping the threat landscape for critical infrastructure operators worldwide. This panel will bring together cybersecurity leaders from government, industry, and research to explore how AI is redefining risk across sectors such as energy, water, transportation, and telecommunications.

From energy components and water treatment chemicals to microchips and telecommunications hardware, America’s critical infrastructure depends on a complex, globally interconnected supply chain. This panel will examine how to strategically protect the nation’s vital supply chains from cyber threats that could disrupt essential services or compromise national security.

Transportation systems rely on continuous access to electric power, resilient communications networks, and dependable water systems to safely move people, goods, and emergency services. As cyber threats, physical attacks, extreme weather, and geopolitical tensions increasingly target multiple sectors simultaneously, disruptions in one critical infrastructure can rapidly cascade across others, creating complex operational and national security challenges. This session will bring together leaders from government and industry to examine today’s most pressing cross-sector dependencies as it relates to transportation, explore lessons from recent incidents and exercises, and discuss practical strategies for improving resilience, coordinated response, and risk management across America’s most interconnected critical infrastructure systems.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how infrastructure owners and operators identify hidden dependencies, model cascading failures, and uncover vulnerabilities that traditional risk assessments often miss. This panel will explore how government and industry are leveraging AI to strengthen cross-sector resilience, prioritize investments, and better anticipate disruptions across interconnected critical infrastructure systems before they become operational crises.

As cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure grow more systemic, insurers, infrastructure operators, and government leaders are rethinking cyber insurance as more than financial risk transfer. This panel will examine how underwriting, incident data, resilience requirements, and public-private collaboration can help drive stronger defenses across the essential services Americans rely on every day.

The transition to quantum-resistant security is no longer a future challenge—it is a present-day imperative as critical infrastructure operators face the risks of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks and the complexity of replacing cryptography across deeply interconnected operational and information technology environments. This session will explore how infrastructure owners, technology providers, and government agencies are prioritizing quantum readiness, managing dependencies across sectors such as energy, telecommunications, transportation, water, and finance, and coordinating modernization efforts without disrupting essential services.

Roundtables offered to further discuss related Critical Infrastructure topics.

Potential LTD Topics Include:

1. Getting ahead of the intelligence sharing across sectors game
2. What should we be thinking about in communicating and translating threat across the critical sectors?
3. What is the role of the government and the private sector in protecting our critical sectors?
4. What can be done to upgrade the talent gap to best defend critical infrastructure?
5. How can we best exercise our way to a better critical infrastructure defense?

From energy and transportation to healthcare and water systems, Texas’ critical infrastructure faces an evolving landscape of cyber threats. This candid conversation with Texas Cyber Command and Texas State leadership will focus on their plans to strengthen statewide cyber resilience through proactive defense strategies, cutting-edge technology, public-private collaboration, and coordinated incident response.

How can our nation best strengthen the systems that power daily life? As evolving cyber threats increasingly target these interconnected sectors, panelists will examine the policies, technologies, and partnerships needed to reduce vulnerabilities and ensure continuity of essential services. The discussion will highlight emerging risks, gaps in current protections, and the importance of cross-sector visibility and communication to anticipate and mitigate disruptions before they cascade across the broader ecosystem.

The panel will also address the role of public-private collaboration in building a more resilient national infrastructure. Experts will discuss how industry innovation, federal strategy, and coordinated incident response can work together to create a unified resilience framework. Emphasis will be placed on actionable steps—ranging from modernizing legacy systems to implementing robust risk-management practices—that strengthen preparedness and accelerate recovery in the face of sophisticated cyber and physical threats.

This panel will examine how vulnerabilities at the local level can ripple across the national critical infrastructure landscape. As cities, utilities, transportation hubs, and regional communication networks increasingly rely on interconnected digital systems, a single unprotected node can create cascading impacts far beyond its geographic boundaries. Panelists will explore real-world scenarios in which gaps in local cybersecurity practices have threatened energy delivery, disrupted transportation flows, or exposed sensitive water and communications systems—highlighting why resilience must be built from the ground up.

The session will also focus on empowering local stakeholders to understand their role within the broader national security ecosystem. Experts will discuss how federal guidance, state leadership, and industry collaboration can better support communities in adopting consistent security standards, sharing actionable threat information, and improving their readiness to detect and respond to attacks. By reinforcing the link between local action and national resilience, the panel will underscore the urgency of a whole-of-ecosystem approach—one that recognizes that protecting critical infrastructure is not just a federal or industry issue, but a shared responsibility spanning every level of government and society.

Critical infrastructure resilience is only as strong as the ecosystem of OEMs, technology providers, software developers, cloud services, and supply chain partners that design, operate, and maintain the systems underpinning essential services. As adversaries increasingly target trusted vendors and interconnected technologies to gain access to critical environments, this panel will examine how infrastructure owners, government agencies, and industry partners are building a more unified approach to cyber defense through secure-by-design principles, shared accountability, continuous risk management, and collaborative threat intelligence. Join senior leaders from across the public and private sectors as they discuss how collective defense can strengthen resilience across the entire critical infrastructure supply chain and better prepare the nation to withstand the next generation of cyber threats.

A session examining how stakeholders can strengthen cross-sector critical infrastructure resilience in the face of nation-state efforts to deter or disrupt a U.S. response during international conflict, with a focus on concrete takeaways and next steps.