Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association

AFCEA

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Military cyber organizations provide excellent opportunities for networking among cyber professionals along with myriad resources of which to take advantage.  First, let me define how I’m using the phrase “military cyber organization”.  These organizations are not sponsored by the military, but they do have active participation by and are geared towards military members.   Additionally, they either have cyber as their sole focus or at least a significant part of their focus.   This is NMC’s first post on military cyber organizations.  Today, I’ll cover one that has been around for a while.  We will cover others in future posts.

afcea_globeFormed in 1946, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) is celebrating its 70th anniversary.  AFCEA is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering collaboration among military, government, industry, and academia.   As its name implies, AFCEA’s original focus was in communications and electronics, but as technology has evolved so has AFCEA, adding “information technology” (i.e. cyber) to its mission statement.

AFCEA is also an international organization with over 150 chapters across the globe.  They may be best known for the number of events they sponsor.   You can often find well-known active-duty Admirals and Generals or government Senior Executives as the keynote speakers at AFCEA conferences.   Cyber-specific events include ones such as Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium and International Cyber Symposium.

coverjul15One of the AFCEA resources I use most is its SIGNAL Magazine.  As an AFCEA member, I get the hard copy magazine mailed to my home.  However, all the magazine’s articles are online.   There will often be issues devoted primarily to cyber, as seen by the cover of the July 2015 issue to the right.   Additionally, SIGNAL Magazine has recently started its “The Cyber Edge” series of article.  SIGNAL also has frequent cyber news articles on its website that are not part of the magazine.

An arm of AFCEA that is worth mentioning is its Educational Foundation, which provides education opportunities for people involved in science, technology, engineering, and mathmematics (STEM) disciplines, including cybersecurity.   They provide scholarships, grants, professional development courses, and continuing education credits.

Here are some additional quick links to AFCEA cyber resources:

If you are looking to connect with other cyber professionals or even just looking for various cyber resources, checking out AFCEA could be beneficial.