By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Grayson Chamber of Commerce began their June meeting by welcoming new members.
“We have been very busy,” Chamber Director Mike Nelson told chamber members. “We want to welcome Clear Choice Auto Sales of Grayson to the chamber. They are located right here on Interstate Drive. We also cut some ribbons and welcomed Janey Marcum and Southern Charm Boutique. She had a store over in Hitchins. So, now she has moved down here in the Town Mall on the corner by Walgreens.”
“We also welcome Tygart’s Creek Canine Retreat,” Nelson continued. “And we have a new aesthetics provider coming to town. They are going in at the location next to the Nook & Cranny coffee shop and Hanes Jewelry. The Aesthetics Haus is going to be there. And we have a couple of new businesses that are represented here today. We want to welcome Tiffany Stamper with T-Mobile Business, and we want to welcome the guys from Arrick’s Propane.”
The chamber’s guest speaker for the June meeting was Zachary Johnson from Appalachian Wireless who discussed the importance of cybersecurity with the chamber. Johnson told the chamber that he liked to see every business succeed, and one key element of that success was cybersecurity.
“It’s an unfortunate truth of today’s battlefield we’re living in,” Johnson said of cybersecurity and all the ways that computer systems could be compromised.
Johnson told the chamber that he specialized in both defense and offense in the field of cybersecurity, and stressed the need for both even in the small business world.
“I hope to help you on any scale to defend your business network,” Johnson said. “And I would like to give you enough knowledge so that you will be able to at least know what questions to ask.”
During his talk to the chamber Johnson highlighted the importance of things a small business owner might not think would be necessary to secure their network. He also told chamber members that many “hackers” enjoyed targeting smaller businesses in spite of the payoff for their efforts being less that hacking a larger company or corporation.
“Small to medium business, somewhere between 15 and 500 employees, are targeted by hackers as frequently as larger businesses,” Johnson said. “Even microbusinesses need to be concerned with cybersecurity as well. Even if you are just an individual, this is still important to you. Because whether you know it or not, we are at war.”
“On the cybersecurity front, the attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated,” Johnson told the chamber.
APT’s, or Advanced Persistent Threats, are nation state threat actors. These include hacking groups that are attacking everything.
“They are sophisticated and coordinated, not kids in a basement,” he said. “They are state funded (from other countries) most of the time and have corporate structures. They have job postings and have benefits,” he said to drive home the groups’ organizational level. “And there are a lot of these groups that have budgets higher than many in this room today.”
Johnson told the chamber not to indulge in a false sense of security because they might think they are less of a target.
“Small businesses are less secure,” Johnson said. “They are easy to attack quickly and make money through ransomware or just bank account hacking. They (hackers) use these attacks to gather resources to fund their corporations.”
Johnson highlighted many potential risks to the chamber and how hackers could exploit the weak spots in their security. He also recommended that everyone who might possibly need access to the business computer network take at least basic computer safety training. In many cases this basic training is offered free or at a low cost.
“Even something as simple as not changing your passwords regularly can open the door to a hacker,” Johnson told the chamber.
“Even if you don’t have an internet security professional you can make one,” Johnson said. “Start small with one employee and get them trained so they can train your other employees.”
Johnson said it is definitely worth the time and the little extra money it will cost at the start, because it can save the small business a lot of money in the future.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
