The Valley Industry Association’s monthly luncheon focused on cybersecurity at the Child & Family Center’s Education Center on Tuesday.
Attendees got to enjoy lunch and mingle before the presentation, “The Cyber Threat You Don’t See Coming: Emerging Risks, Hidden Vulnerabilities, and What Leaders Must Do Now.” The presentation featured guest speaker Detective Sgt. Peter Hish from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Cybercrime Investigations.
Hish began his talk by saying that the real problem is leadership, not an information technology problem.
“It comes to their security, their company, their infrastructure, from cyberpaths … I see it over and over and over again,” Hish said.
He recalled businesses constantly falling victim to different tricks or people hacking into their databases. Hish added that people who are in these businesses want to make money but are not thinking of the bigger picture.
“Even a nonprofit is focused on making money for the nonprofit. They’re looking at marketing; they’re looking at innovation,” Hish said. “Staffing, payroll, all those things, but they’re not thinking of security or infrastructure, which does not make them money. It can cost them money later, but it doesn’t make them money.”
Hish said that culture is another big part of cybersecurity and said the boss reflects the employees.
“A good culture is important. If the boss has their password taped under the keyboard or they’re leaving their computer on the desk, but not doing those basic things, employees see that and do the same thing. And now you’re setting (up) a bad culture within your environment,” Hish said.
He added that businesses should do regular training for cybersecurity, suggesting attendees complete a five-minute weekly exercise to help understand the importance of privacy and cybersecurity.
At the end of the presentation, attendees participated in a question-and-answer session with Hish about the presentation and other topics involving cybersecurity.
