Cybersecurity seminar held at Tri Star | News | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #ransomware

Bell said that the seminar focused on what you can do to prepare yourself, or your company for a cyber attack. 

“It’s a bigger threat than you think Its everywhere around the world. What happens if you do get attacked?” said Bell. A surprising fact that Bell shared was that 70 percent of companies that are down for at least 10 days due to a cyber attack, go out of business within a year. 

“If you’re attacked, and they take your data, and shut you down, you’ll be out of business,” said Bell.

At the seminar were experiencers of these kinds of attacks who were able to add their experiences to the seminar. 

“You have to change passwords, we were terrible about it,” said IT Director at Continental Express Ron Koontz. Koontz explained to the seminar that while they were attacked with ransom ware, that they were also well prepared for such attacks, and could tell when they had come under attack, and if anything had been taken. 

“It’s credibility. This is something that happens a lot,” said Bell of what having victims share their stories meant to the seminar.

“We like doing things like this. It’s like you’re giving back, but the community built this so why can’t they come in and get educated?” said Tim Buschur, Tri Star’s Director. Buschur said that he views Tri Star as more than a school, and considers it more of a community center. 

“This is more than just a school, it’s a community center. It’s not any different than having adult classes. There are companies that want to come in here and help people, and obviously today some of those companies learned a lot,” said Buschur.

If there was one thing that Bell said he wanted attendees to take away, it was that the threat is real. 

“The threat is real, and at a minimum, change your passwords. Put a VPN in place, buy antivirus software, but also update your software,” said Bell. He said that when a company puts out an update about software, usually it means someone has found a way to exploit it, and put the end user at risk. “The update notification is there for a reason.”