Tech Daily Dose

Washington continues to talk about cyber security, even if action on that hot topic remains rare.

In town is the Air Force Association's first CyberFutures Conference, which will focus on "the newest and most dangerous enemy facing the United States."

The conference will feature presentations from a range of academic, military, and government experts (including the FBI's Gordon Snow), as well as an expo to showcase cyber security technology. The two-day event will also include the finals of CyberPatriot, a "high school cyber defense competition." More on the conference here.

The Senate Commerce Committee has postponed a hearing on cyber security originally planned for Wednesday. The panel was slated to hear testimony from some top cyber security experts, including the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division.

In announcing the hearing, Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., vowed to pass cyber security bill this year. "Every day, cyber thieves are stealing our identities, our money, our business innovations and our national security secrets," he said. "They are trying to rob us of our economic and global competitiveness, and right now we're not stopping them. There is too much at stake and no time to waste.

The witness list includes: Gordon Snow, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division; Harriet Pearson vice president, security counsel, and chief privacy officer for IBM; Sara Santarelli, Verizon's chief network security officer; and Thomas Kellerman, vice president of security awareness for Core Security Technologies.

A new date for the hearing has not yet been set.