The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) program announced today a first-of-its-kind Open Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012.

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), the one-day summit will gather leading public- and private-sector cybersecurity experts to discuss how open source software solutions are being development and deployed to support national cybersecurity objectives.

The HOST Open Cybersecurity Summit will be held at the Schafer Conference Facility, 1125 15th St. NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C., from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Attendance is free and open to the public, however space is limited and advance registration is required. Registration and call for papers forms are available at the Website.

Stewart A. Baker, former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will provide the keynote address. Baker is a recognized expert in government policy, law enforcement and international cybersecurity matters. In addition to his service at DHS, he served as General Council for the National Security Agency and is now a partner in private legal practice in Washington, D.C.

Joshua Davis, HOST Principal Investigator with GTRI's Cyber Technology & Information Security Laboratory (CTISL) will also discuss emerging open source projects and unveil several new investments the project will make during his talk later in the day.

The summit is part of the 5-year, $10M DHS-funded HOST program led by GTRI HOST was created to explore, invest in and share solutions developed and distributed as open source software tools and applications.

Additional information on the HOST program can be found at:http://www.cyber.st.dhs.gov/host/.