The Economic Club of Grand Rapids hosted a luncheon last Monday, May 8, addressing cybersecurity. Miller Johnson sponsored the event and several members of the Privacy and Cybersecurity team attended to hear the presentation of former FBI cyber expert James Trainor.  During his time at the FBI, Mr. Trainor investigated some of the world’s largest breaches.  His experience and expertise provided for an entertaining and enlightening presentation. He discussed how cybercrime is committed by a variety of groups and individuals include state actors, terrorist organizations and criminal enterprises all of whom have their own goals and tactics. Mr. Trainor also encouraged companies to report attacks to the FBI.  He said the FBI treats businesses as victims in these situations and is looking to help companies rather than investigate them.  Mr. Trainor stressed the importance of network security and predicted that hacking, ransomware and other cyber-attacks will continue to grow over the next three years. Of particular relevance was what Mr. Trainor identified as the key objectives to any cybersecurity program:

• Increase visibility
• Reduce surface risk
• Prevent know threats
• Discover unknown threats

Contact a member of the Privacy and Cybersecurity team to find out how you can make sure your cybersecurity program accomplishes each of these key objectives.