Virginia CyberCon brings about 60 school-division technology leaders together to plan stronger K‑12 cybersecurity
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Summary
Louisa County hosted Virginia CyberCon 2025, a one‑day conference of technology directors, superintendents and vendors focused on ransomware preparation, incident response and hands‑on exercises for K‑12 school systems.
Louisa County Public Schools hosted Virginia CyberCon 2025, bringing roughly 60 school divisions, technology directors and security vendors together for a day of presentations, demonstrations and tabletop exercises aimed at securing K‑12 networks.
The conference opened with Louisa County Chief Technology Officer David Childress, who framed cybersecurity as both an instructional and administrative priority and said the event aimed to deliver practical tools that school divisions could take home. "This conference isn't just about awareness. It's about action," Childress said, and outlined morning keynote speakers, a live hacking demonstration and role‑specific afternoon breakouts.
Childress thanked local organizers John Collins (director of technology, Lynchburg City Schools) and Joe Goldman (supervisor of technology, Amherst County), and named sponsors that supported the event. Organizers opened remote and in‑room sessions with a QR link for questions and a Slido feed for round‑table follow‑ups.
The agenda combined threat briefings from law‑enforcement and incident‑response experts, a live hacking demonstration and a full‑room tabletop exercise using Backdoors and Breaches, the training card game created by Black Hills Information Security. Presenters emphasized that protecting schools requires layered defenses — from multifactor authentication and patching to tested offline backups and organized incident response plans — and that leadership support is needed to fund staff and tools.
Organizers said the day’s goals were clarity on current threats, a playbook of templates and checklists, and contacts in the state that divisions can rely on when incidents occur. Breakout sessions after lunch gave attendees an opportunity to build or refine practical incident‑response steps and to request follow‑up help from regional partners.
The conference concluded with vendor and partner tables, a solicitation for feedback from attendees and a promise to publish slide decks, templates and follow‑up resources to participants.
