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ABAOC-CAN Business Networking Breakfast
12/14/2022, ABAOC-CAN Business Networking Breakfast training event on the agenda of cybersecurity threats held at the Delta Hotel by Marriott Anaheim in Garden Grove, CA. 16 People attended.
For the last training event of the year, ABAOC knew it was competing for attention against the holidays, so it wanted to bring in a topic of relevance that would make an impact on business owners. In light of the recent cyber hacks to the local school districts and several large companies, and the fact that this time of year there are a lot of online purchases happening, we felt it was important to educate our community on the current threats to cybersecurity — specifically malware, ransomware and the “dark web”.
To speak to this, ABAOC brought in cybersecurity expert and former hacker, Gerry Dumatol, owner of Dumatek Cybersecurity. He educated the attendees on what the “dark web” is, and how it is the root of where malicious cyber activity is driven. He explained how hackers formed a marketplace on the dark web where sensitive data is bought and sold, and sometimes even openly published for other hackers to utilize. He demonstrated how he could find one of his client’s usernames and passwords in just a matter of minutes. Gerry then educated the attendees on the consequences of malware and ransomware and how catastrophic a security breach can be to a business, especially a small business that often does not have the money to recover from a deep hack.
Finally, Gerry provided training on how to “harden” systems and took us through steps to mitigate the risk of attack. He admitted that there is no such thing as completely “foolproofing” cybersecurity, but it was important to make it as difficult as possible by being less vulnerable.
There were 27 registered for the event but only 16 people attended. However, those that attended were very engaged, frequently asked questions and even shared experiences with being hacked. By the end, ABAOC was receiving feedback that it would be great for Gerry to come back periodically to give “update training” on the current threats of the day and speak of any new techniques or tools to continue protecting their systems.
