Small-business owners may think they will not be targeted by cyber criminals the way a big company or military contractor might, so it's natural to become lax about cyber security.
That is the mindset a local program wants to change by raising awareness and educating entrepreneurs that they are also vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Securing Our eCity aims to bring a neighborhood-watch program to the online world, through classroom training, workshops, instructional videos and blogs. Its mission is to allow every San Diegan to live, work and play safely online.
Darin Andersen spearheads the eCity initiative. He is chief operating officer of ESET, a global provider of security software for home and business computers and mobile devices. Its North American corporate headquarters is in San Diego.
“Back in 2008, researchers at my company noticed cyber criminals were becoming increasingly successful at circumventing traditional security technologies, such as antivirus. Instead they were exploiting human behavioral weaknesses which led smart business people to do dumb things online,” Andersen said, explaining why the grassroots program was launched.
“The awareness level still is, unfortunately, low. New versions of traditional scams like the 419 Nigerian letter scam are rampant,” he said.
To combat this threat, Andersen advised small businesses to keep their operating systems up to date and to run and update antivirus software on computers and mobile devices.
Geo-tagging, or mapping one’s coordinates and location, is a hot trend right now. He said it would be prudent to refrain from sharing through social media details of business and personal trips until after the trip, so criminals do not discover your whereabouts.
Andersen also suggested cutting down on the use of social media.
“Limit your share of social networking, because once you friend someone, you’ve really undressed yourself in front of them,” he said.
Typically, companies in the financial, defense and health industries are the main targets of cyber criminals. But such firms also adopt tough security measures, making them more of a challenge. However, small firms become targets for hackers because they are easier to break into.
eCity is the first comprehensive awareness program that shows people what not to do online. The City of San Diego welcomed the initiative and it’s now a model program at the state and national level, Andersen said.
It is also being set up in several cities across the U.S and has even partnered with the Girl Scouts to develop a “Cyber Savvy” patch.
Classes are free and held on-demand. On average, each class trains 25 people at a time about precautions, but class sizes can be as large as 500.
