Helping small businesses become more aware of cyber security threats

Small business owners, employees, staff, and JMU faculty came together on October 30, 2015 at James Madison University to participate in the First Cyber Security Awareness Workshop for Small Businesses. The workshop was a joint effort between the College of Integrated Science and Engineering and the College of Business at JMU, the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council (SVTC).

Patricia Toth, IT Specialist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), delivered the keynote address. She opened with illuminating statistics, framing the issue for the audience of local business professionals. “There are approximately 28 million small businesses in the United States and the average cost of a cybercrime incident for a small business is $82,000. Attackers see small businesses as an easy way in,” said Toth. She offered solutions but indicated that no risk can be completely eliminated. In the case of cybercrime, the risk is much higher than many businesses realize.

Dr. Edna Reid, Intelligence Analysis professor, moderated the panel discussion focusing on JMU outreach initiatives in cyber security.  Computer Science Professor, Dr. Hossain Heydari provided an example of outreach that the university provides. “Students from our Cyber Defense and Computer Forensics provide assistance to local businesses. We often send students to help small companies whose networks have been compromised.  Our students can help them to recover files lost in cyber-attacks,” explained Heydari.

Following the panel discussion, the Cyber Defense Club gave a demonstration on cyber security at work. Students located a suspicious file on the sample machine and showed the audience how to remove it and searching for other malicious code or applications that may have also been installed.

Cyber security can be overwhelming for small businesses. By offering this workshop, JMU has helped to alleviate some of the confusion and provide strategies for confronting the threat of cybercrime in the local community.  Because the reception of the workshop was so positive, JMU will organize additional workshops in the future.