Events

The small business community is a large portion of the U.S. and global economy and is also largely under-resourced when it comes to building strong cyber defenses. The efficient use, or prioritization, of limited resources is critical. Speakers from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will share how to identify cybersecurity risks that small businesses commonly face and will share practical and actionable cybersecurity safeguards that can significantly reduce cybersecurity risks and that typically do not take significant time, financial investment, or technical expertise to implement.

Ample time will be saved for audience questions and discussion.

Speakers: 

• Christine Serrano Glassner, Chief External Affairs Officer, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
• Daniel Eliot, Lead for Small Business Engagement, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Event description

Cyber threats can slow down or shut down your business if you are not prepared. In this live webinar, you will learn from a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advisor practical steps to reduce cyber risk, protect your most important systems and data, and build a simple plan to respond and recover when something goes wrong.

Highlights:

• Identify the systems, data, and services your business needs most
• Prioritize basic cyber risks and plan for minimum operations during recovery
• Learn essential protections like MFA, patching, backups, and access controls
• Create a simple incident response playbook for detection and containment

This live webinar is intended for small business owners who want to learn practical ways to strengthen cybersecurity and keep their business operating before, during, and after a cyber disruption.

This introduction to good cyber hygiene will prepare businesses to not only protect against specific cyber-attacks but also align their efforts with industry standards such as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification and NIST Framework.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Earl Gregorich is the Marketing & Outreach Specialist for the US Small Business Administration in Duncan, SC. He is a USAF veteran, graduated with a BS degree from Wright State University, and has had a 20+ year career with US Small Business Administration resource partners, consulting business owners and administering business and economic development programs. Earl serves the 20 Upstate counties of South Carolina and is experienced in providing guidance on SBA lending programs, government contracting programs, SBA disaster relief programs and business development training.

At this no-cost webinar, presented by Patrick Buono, CEO/CXO, Aurora Computer Technology Inc.,

Learn how to strengthen your business against disruptions with practical technology strategies for resilience. This session will cover:

• Perform regular backups and test recovery to ensure data can be quickly restored and systems withstand cyberattacks
• Create a disaster plan for events like fires or outages, with offsite backups and strategies to keep operations running
• Create and update an incident response plan with clear roles, communication, and escalation steps for cyber incidents

NIST's Small Business Cybersecurity Community of Interest (COI) has been established to convene the public and private sectors to share business insights, expertise, challenges, and perspectives to guide our work and assist NIST in addressing the cybersecurity needs of the small businesses community. NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Community of Interest calls meet quarterly to present recent updates in the NIST small business program, to engage in topical discussions, and to answer audience questions.

Synopsis:

Employers are looking for job-ready students with hands-on experience for tomorrow’s workforce. During this webinar you will learn about how reality-based, future-ready education approaches can help students develop true work-based skills and capabilities.

Speaker 1 will share about their approach to offering realism-based training to reshape skill development, why failure is valuable workforce data, and how educators and employers can integrate controlled realism into their curriculum and teaching. Speaker 2 will share a blueprint for integrating "Future-Ready" skills into existing academic frameworks, helping K-12 students prepare for the immediate workforce reality: Cloud Security and Generative AI.