Cybersecurity Titans: Billington’s New Advisory Board Promises Strategic Insight

Cybersecurity Titans: Billington’s New Advisory Board Promises Strategic Insight

At a glance

• Billington Cybersecurity has formed a new advisory board to guide its cybersecurity programming.
• Lead by Experts: The board is led by George Barnes, former NSA Deputy Director, and Andy Boyd, former director of the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI).
• Industry-Leading Members: Members come from government, the military, academia and industry.
• Strategic Purpose: The board will help shape Billington’s education programs and summit content on emerging threats.

Who is on the board

Billington CyberSecurity, known for its cybersecurity summits and education events, announced a new advisory board on March 31, 2025, and two names stand out on it: George Barnes, who served as Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Andy Boyd, who was director of the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence. Serious résumés.

The board’s job is to help Billington pick the threats and policy questions its programs cover. And the speakers.

What the members bring

Barnes and Boyd lead a nine-member group drawn from government, the military, academia and the private sector. The mix gives Billington people who have run large security programs and who know where federal cyber policy is heading over the next few years, which is exactly what a summit organizer needs when it builds an agenda for agency CISOs and their vendors.

Barnes spent years leading major programs at the NSA. Boyd brings the CIA’s cyber intelligence work. Both know the community well.

What the board is meant to do

Cyber threats keep getting more complex, and Billington wants its programming to keep up. The board is supposed to bring new ideas, new partners and earlier warning on issues before they become headlines.

Billington hopes the board will raise the quality of its own events and, through them, influence wider industry practice, with better cooperation between the public and private sectors as a running theme.

Connecting people and ideas is the other half of the job. Through its work, the board aims to link security practices that are often siloed by industry, which fits Billington’s role as a convener of government and industry leaders. Watch the conference agendas.

The road ahead

Stronger cyber defense depends on new ideas and on getting them into practice quickly. Billington’s new board tries to bring both into its programming. Critical infrastructure gets the most attention.

The board’s insights may also push attendees to rethink old security habits and work more closely across agencies and companies, a kind of cooperation that matters more as daily life runs on digital systems.

With Barnes and Boyd at the head, Billington’s advisory board gives the company direct access to senior intelligence experience. The first test will be the agenda for its next summit.

Dan Evert, CCNP

Dan Evert is a self proclaimed Router Jockey. Dan got heavily involved in networking right out of high school and has never looked back! Dan is giving back by working with high school students to get them involved and interested in Networking and Security.