Evolving Risks of Cyber Security Workshop to Follow Chamber of Commerce Breakfast on June 20

Middletown, CT

Chairman Gregory Shook of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce announced that a First Niagara Workshop will be held following the Chamber's June Member Breakfast featuring David Benedict, Athletic Director of the University of Connecticut. The workshop called "the Evolving Risks of Cyber Security" will be held on Monday, June 20, 2016 at 9:15 a.m. following the breakfast at the Radisson Hotel Cromwell.

This workshop is sponsored by First Niagara Bank and presented is by Charles P. Bellingrath of ARC Excess & Surplus LLC - Boston a National Practice Leader in Privacy, Network Security and Technology Errors & Omissions.

To register for the breakfast and workshop or workshop alone visit middlesexchamber.com/cyber. Chamber member and non-member rates are available.

Here's 7 Reasons to Attend the Evolving Risks of Cyber Security Workshop:

1. Cyber Attacks on Business are on the Rise. The number of known cyber security incidents rose by 48 percent in 2014 and cyber-attacks targeted against SMBs have become more prevalent. Source: Symantec, 2014 Internet Security Threat Report.

2. Small and midsize businesses are not just targets of cybercrime, they are its principal target. The majority of all targeted cyberattacks last year were directed at small to medium sized businesses, because small business security systems are very often less robust than large corporations cybercriminals target them especially to gain access to data. Source: US Securities and Exchange Commission.

3. Your business survival depends on it. It has been estimated that half of the small businesses that suffer a cyberattack go out of business within six months as a result. Source: National Cybersecurity Institute at Excelsior College.

4. Even if you are secure, if you partner with an organization who isn’t it can effect negatively your business. It is believed that the cybercriminals responsible for the breach of Target’s systems in November 2013—which led to the theft of 70 million individuals’ personal information gained access to Target’s system by penetrating the network of the small businesses that Target used for heating and air conditioning services. The new reality is that large organizations are, in effect, a “sprawling network” of interconnected business partners. Source: The New York Times.

5. Phishing emails are getting more sophisticated - can you protect your employees from the risk to your company? Working with a number of employees, an employee at any level may be accidentally be putting you organization at risk to your data.

6. Costs associated with a cyber-attacks are rising. For example, the survey found that the cost of the average attack rose from $8,699 in 2013 to $20,752 last year—an increase of almost 140 percent in only one year. Source: StaySafeOnline.org

7. There are steps you can take to prevent this all from happening. There are many steps that you can take to better serve your business and learn many of them at this First Niagara Workshop Series.

Mike Fallon

Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce

393 Main Street

Middletown, CT 06457

860-347-6924 ext.228