VulnCheck Announces Former U.S. Cyber Command and NSA Leader Gen. Paul M. Nakasone as 2026 THREATCON1 Keynote Speaker

Conference returns for second year, opens call for presentations for showcase and technical tracks

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VulnCheck, The Exploit Intelligence Company, today announced that Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, former commander of U.S. Cyber Command and former director of the National Security Agency, will keynote this year’s THREATCON1 conference. The event will take place October 5-7, 2026 in Reston, Virginia. The conference has also opened its Call for Presentations, with submissions due July 10, 2026.

Returning for the second year, THREATCON1 brings together security researchers, cyber operators, government leaders and business executives to collaborate on strategies for defending against the threats impacting critical infrastructure, national security and the global economy. The conference is building on the 2025 speaker lineup that featured prominent experts from Chevron, Halcyon AI, Qualys, runZero, Synack, watchTowr and other leading organizations, as well as former leaders from the CIA and CISA.

“THREATCON1 helps defenders working every day to counter the threats that matter most level up,” said Anthony Bettini, CEO and founder, VulnCheck. “With Gen. Nakasone joining us as keynote speaker, this year’s event will bring an unmatched level of national security insight at a time when cyber operations, geopolitical competition and digital infrastructure risk are converging.”

A retired U.S. Army four-star general, Gen. Nakasone is one of the foremost authorities on cybersecurity and intelligence. During his tenure leading the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, he oversaw some of the nation’s most consequential cyber missions, helping shape U.S. strategy against state-sponsored threats, ransomware gangs, criminal enterprises and election interference. Gen. Nakasone is also the founding director of the Vanderbilt Institute of National Security and a Ballistic Ventures strategic adviser.

In his keynote, “Charting the Course of National Security in a Digital World,” Gen. Nakasone will reflect on the challenges and opportunities today’s defenders face, focusing on the intersection of technology and threat actors, securing critical infrastructure, the imperative for proactive defense, and confronting the next wave of cyber risk.

“We’re also looking forward to expanding this year’s speaker roster with researchers, operators and leaders who bring practical insight, original research and real-world experience to attendees to help in the fight,” added Bettini.

Presentation proposals are due July 10, 2026. Speakers are invited to submit original presentations across two tracks. The Showcase Track is focused on strategy, policy, threat intelligence and industry trends. The Technical Track covers in-depth technical research, demos, and hands-on content. Submissions can be made at https://www.threatcon1.org/submissions.

The event will also feature the THREATCON1 Capture the Flag competition, run by SkillBit, formerly MetaCTF. The CTF will challenge participants across all three days with trivia, PCAP analysis, reverse engineering, and exploitation tasks.

For more information and to register for the event, visit https://www.threatcon1.org/registration.

About VulnCheck
Exploitation prevention is only as strong as the intelligence driving those efforts, and most of the industry is still running on intelligence that lacks exploit context. VulnCheck, The Exploit Intelligence Company, delivers structured exploit intelligence on what is actively weaponized in the wild, purpose-built for the data lakes, ETL pipelines, automation, and AI and LLM workflows your infrastructure already runs on, raising the capability of everything it powers. Follow us on LinkedIn or X. Learn more at vulncheck.com.