PBN Summit: No business safe from cyber threats, hackers more sophisticated than ever

PANELISTS ARE shown at the Cybersecurity Summit hosted by Providence Business News at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick on Thursday. From left to right, Peter Nelson, co-founder of NetCenergy LLC; Francesca Spidalieri, senior fellow for cyber leadership at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University; Timothy J. Edgar, academic director, executive master in cybersecurity & fellow, Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs at Brown University; and Stephen Ucci,  counsel from Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. and a member of the R.I. House of Representatives.  / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI
PANELISTS ARE shown at the Cybersecurity Summit hosted by Providence Business News at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick on Thursday. From left to right, Peter Nelson, co-founder of NetCenergy LLC; Francesca Spidalieri, senior fellow for cyber leadership at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University; Timothy J. Edgar, academic director, executive master in cybersecurity & fellow, Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs at Brown University; and Stephen Ucci, counsel from Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. and a member of the R.I. House of Representatives. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

WARWICK – With every advance in technology comes a new cyber threat, and no business – large or small – is safe from these increasingly sophisticated security breaches.
A panel of cyber experts discussed this and more at today’s Cybersecurity Summit hosted by Providence Business News at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick.
According to Jeffrey Ziplow, cybersecurity risk assessment partner at BlumShapiro, hackers are well-organized, well-financed and better at hacking into systems than ever before. Another recent change, he said, is that hackers are no longer quick-in and quick-out – they’re staying until they’re caught.
Threats to businesses are numerous and diverse, and include phishing schemes that attempt to scam a user into surrendering secure information; ransomware, a type of email software which encrypts data until a sum of money is paid for retrieval; social engineering, or psychologically manipulating a person into surrendering information; payment fraud and more. Often, businesses fall victim to a combination of these and other threats.
“Cybersecurity is not an IT department’s problem,” Ziplow said. “This is a corporate problem that people of all levels and departments need to be aware of.”
Francesca Spidalieri, senior fellow for cyber leadership at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University, said “C-suite managers have a responsibility to talk about this.”
Cybersecurity breaches will cost companies up to $4 million in 2016, growing to $150 million in 2020, she said.
“Companies need to consider these costs and plan ahead,” Spidalieri said.
A number of high-profile security breaches have occurred in recent years, with companies such as Home Depot and Target falling victim to hacks that attacked millions of customer accounts. As larger companies begin to bulk up on their cybersecurity, hackers are turning to the supply chain, business leaders said.
“Smaller businesses are the low-hanging fruit,” said Timothy Edgar, academic director for the master in cybersecurity program and a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
To make matters worse for business owners, 70 percent of cyber attacks go undetected.
“Few cyber attacks actually affect external services,” Spidalieri said. “Hackers can impersonate you, which is hard for companies to detect. This is not an easy problem to solve, but it is very easy for a hacker to get into, and stay in, your data for a long time.”
So what steps can you take to protect your business?
Peter Nelson, co-founder of NetCenergy LLC, reiterated that companies should have a cyber attack response plan in place long before a data breach occurs. Companies should train employees on best practices to keep information secure, learn the red flags and put systems and policies in place to protect data.
“The antiquated firewall for protection isn’t really cutting it anymore,” he said. He estimated that only about 60 percent of businesses are properly protecting themselves.
Also weighing in on the panel was Kevin Tracy, senior vice president and market executive for Business Banking Group, and Stephen Ucci, counsel from Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. and a member of the R.I. House of Representatives.
Presenting sponsors for the summit were BlumShapiro and NetCenergy. Partner sponsors of the program were Cox Business, Brown University’s Executive Master in Cybersecurity program and Salve Regina University.

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