VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- According to the Department of Defense, there were 30 million known "malicious intrusions" on D.o.D. computer networks between September 2014 and June 2015.
For the Navy, the threat is especially acute. The Navy has more than 500,000 computers in use, and virtually every operation on a warship, from navigation to weapons to engineering, relying on cyberspace for secure and reliable transfer of data.
"The reality is these all have control systems that are used through electronics, networks, they're all interconnected, and they're all interconnected throughout the ship," said Dr. Rich Carlin, Department Head for the Sea Warfare and Weapons Department at the Office of Naval Research. "To come up with those correct solutions that cross those boundaries of the different technologies, hardware, software, networks, that's an incredible challenge that we're trying to address in the Navy."
With today's rapidly evolving threats, developing a strong cyber resilience strategy for the maritime domain is essential. That's where a gathering like the one Tuesday at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach could come in handy.
It was the "CATAPULT Naval Technology Discovery to Deployment Forum & Expo."
This first of its kind event brought together the Office of Naval Research and more than 70, non-traditional small business defense contracting companies.
"And what we have is a non-algebraic solution to encryption which basically means, no matter how powerful your computer gets, it's not going to be able to track what we are doing," said Bryan Kane, founder of a cybersecurity company called Kloch.
Expo organizer, the cybersecurity contractor and former state delegate Ron Villanueva said, people who mean America harm have no intention of letting up.
"That's right. The bad actors are out there," he said."But more importantly, we've got the resources and we've got the industry and innovators that can help combat that, and the Navy wants to meet with you."
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13News Now App.