The National Conference for the Protection of American Communities (NCPAC) is being sponsored by the Institute for the Protection of American Communities (IPAC), The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS), the Alamo Chapter of The Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), St Mary's University School of Law Center for Terrorism Law, and The Alamo Infragard Chapter. This year's focus is on the technology and services, both in government and industry, necessary for the protection of communities. Much has been said about the need for effective communication and information sharing between federal government entities. How the same takes place at the local level, however, has not been as clearly addressed. Topics to be covered at this event cover both the technical and procedural sides of security and focus on protecting critical infrastructures at the community level.

Breakout Sessions: The conference will include multiple tracks to provide a wider coverage of security relevant issues. There will be three tracks available:

• Practitioner Track - The presenters in this track will discuss current issues of importance to security professionals and managers. The presentations will not be simply product pitches by vendors but will focus on problems and solutions faced by today's security practitioners.
  
• Exercise Track - This is a special track with limited attendance. The discussions will cover how to develop and conduct a community cyber security exercise. A short, mini-tabletop exercise will be included as part of this track.
  
• Legal Track - This track will discuss a wide range of legal issues associated with terrorism to include WMD, cyber terrorism, bio terrorism, applicable legal statutes and support to law enforcement.

	We will be hosting the NSA InfoSec Assessment Methodology (IAM) prior to the conference. This course will be offered August 15-16, 2005. We will also be hosting the NSA InfoSec Evaluation Methodology (IEM) immediately following the conference. This course will be offered August 19-20, 2005. For more information click here.