Special Events

Keynote Dinner Address

John Ellis, Author and CEO at Neodigm Press, CTO at Blue Mustang, will detail the very possible threat of Cyber-Physical Terrorism in his presentation, "A Trojan Chip in Your Smartphone? It's Coming..." For years there have been concerns about malicious circuits being used to disrupt our critical infrastructures. However, there was little chance that rogue chips could receive commands in the coordinated fashion required to cause serious damage. Social networks have changed all of that. Hacking a few, highly-followed, celebrity accounts would provide a perfect avenue for distributing 'self-destruct' codes to millions of Trojan chips. A widespread, cyber-physical attack, which would have been almost impossible to pull off just a few years ago, could soon become reality.

Biography: After graduating from the University of Texas with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering, John worked at Sandia National Labs, where he focused on R&D projects for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other federal agencies. His experience includes nuclear weapons testing, missile guidance (Advanced Cruise Missile), air-borne and space-borne imaging systems (Predator UAV), and semiconductor manufacturing. John’s career later took him to SEMI, a global trade association for the semiconductor industry, where as VP of Technology was responsible for global semiconductor manufacturing standards.