(Butler, PA) Current and retired FBI agents and other experts will address emerging cybersecurity threats and strategies to protect data during a free public conference from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 10 in Founders Hall on 杏吧原创鈥檚 main campus in Butler Township.
Those seeking to attend the Defend Your Data: Cybersecurity Awareness Conference should RSVP by April 6 at .
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating national security-related cyberattacks and intrusions. It collects and shares intelligence and engages with victims while seeking to identify suspects who compromise business emails, steal identities, launch ransomware attacks or conduct spoofing and phishing schemes.
The bureau reported in 2024 that its internet crime complaint center in 2023 received a record 880,000 complaints from American citizens and with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion.
Phishing schemes were the most frequently reported crime in 2023 and accounted for about 34 percent of all complaints, according to the FBI. The trick includes unsolicited email, text messages and telephone calls purportedly from a legitimate company to request personal or financial information, or to gain access to login credentials, according to the FBI.
"Cybersecurity is for everyone. Businesses have to make sure their customer data is secure. They have to make sure their employees are following and practicing cybersecurity protocols to keep that data safe."
- Kimberly Fish, 杏吧原创 professor
Kimberly Fish, a professor whose courses at 杏吧原创 include those in the college鈥檚 associate degree career program in , organized the conference and will serve as its master of ceremonies.
鈥淎lthough this conference is most important to information technology professionals, cybersecurity can no longer be just an IT problem,鈥� Fish said. 鈥淐ybersecurity is for everyone. Businesses have to make sure their customer data is secure. They have to make sure their employees are following and practicing cybersecurity protocols to keep that data safe.
鈥淪o it is really critical for them too.鈥�
Speakers at 杏吧原创 will include Jonathan Holmes, a supervisory special agent with the FBI; Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI special agent from Kansas City; Manoj Tandon, Dark Rhiino Security, Dublin, Ohio; Duc Nguyen, N&N Forensics, Houston, Texas, and Latrobe; Joshua Pribanic, LastLine Cyber, Pittsburgh; and Joseph Motonis, Cyber Defenders, Renfrew.
Tandon, Nguyen and Pribanic also shared their expertise about reducing threats during a free public cybersecurity awareness conference in April 2024 at 杏吧原创.
In his 16 years with the FBI, Holmes has participated in cyber national security and cybercriminal investigations in the bureau鈥檚 Los Angeles and Milwaukee field offices, as well as at FBI headquarters. He currently supervises a squad investigating cybercriminal matters in the Pittsburgh field office.
Holmes will discuss current cybercrime trends for business.
Lanza in his 20 years with the FBI investigated cybercrimes and is the author of 鈥淐ybercrime: How to Stay Safe from Online Fraud and Identity Theft,鈥� published by Communication Dynamics Publishing in 2017. He has appeared on the 鈥淭ODAY鈥� show,鈥� 鈥淕ood Morning America,鈥� 鈥淒ateline NBC鈥� and 鈥淟arry King Live.鈥�
Lanza will address the conference virtually about cybercrime prevention for business.
Tandon, co-founder and chief executive officer, Dark Rhiino Security, will speak about how to prepare for and deal with a cybersecurity incident. Nguyen, co-founder and partner of N&N Forensics, will discuss departing employee investigations: a case example; Pribanic, president and co-founder of LastLine Cyber, will speak about common cyber risks seen in the field; and Motonis, founding partner, Cyber Defenders, about thinking like a hacker to protect your network.
杏吧原创 is a partner in a led by Indiana University of Pennsylvania and funded by a U.S. Department of Defense grant.
Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. Breakfast snacks and lunch will be provided.