Cyber Risk Continuum – Advice for the busy workplace

Four experts, nearly three dozen attendees and a lot of great tips for staying safe in an increasingly dangerous world of Cyber attacks.

All that was part of the RPM Technologies annual Cyber Risk Continuum – Business readiness before and after a breach, held on February 27 at our corporate headquarters in Downtown Indianapolis.

The nearly 2-hour discussion delved into topics – some familiar, some new – that are of major importance to corporate America and IT professionals everywhere.

Some of those topics:

• Staying on top of moves by the European Union requiring notification of breaches within 72 hours.
• Ransomware and its continued threat.
• Phishing schemes (and the dangers of auto-fill e-mail addresses).
• Dealing with the media during a Cyber disaster.
• Making sure you’re covered in case of an attack.

When it comes to developing strategies to address these pressing issues, Bose McKinney & Evans partner attorney Craig Pinkus offered this advice: “I think today’s businesses need to think a little more forensically and not just about how to keep afloat. In the face of multiple attacks we have seen, we just cannot ignore the warning signs any longer.”

Mr. Pinkus was joined on stage by Roger Harvey, a Principal at Bose Public Affiars, who discussed the public relations aspect of dealing with a breach. Mr. Harvey challenged companies to augment their inside staff with outside consultants who can help with the media and public relations when the time is needed.

“If you don’t know who to call when something like this happens to you, then that’s a bad place to be in,” he said, adding that companies need to stick to the basic facts of a breach, be transparent, never say “no comment” and make your apologies genuine.

Evan Fenaroll of Philadelphia Insurance urged those attending to be diligent with criminal background checks of employees in order to prevent so-called “rogue” actions taken from within a company; and he mentioned one common mistake involving crucial passwords for the company’s networks – “they can’t just be in the hands of one guy.”

RPM’s own Johrdan Vicstein, a senior security engineer, discussed how companies can take actions with their hardware and software to prevent high profile breaches such as those we have seen in central Indiana over the past few years.

The event was sponsored by Cisco, Bose McKinney & Evans, Assured Partners and RPM. It included a wonderful lunch provided by CharBlue Steakhouse and a greeting by former Indianapolis Colts football player (and restaurant owner) Gary Brackett.

If you want to know more about how your company can fend off a future Cyber attack, contact us so we can assess your situation and help you protect your company’s vital information.