CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Chief Technology Officer Gale Given announced today that the West Virginia Office of Technology (WVOT) will offer a Cyber Security Event, free of charge, on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Charleston Civic Center. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m.
Pre-registration is required and is open to all public sector officials and employees as well as the general public. For more information or to register for the 2016 Cyber Security Conference, please visit https://2016wvcyber.eventbrite.com/.
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which enables WVOT to encourage public and private sector stakeholders to use best practices for a safe, secure and resilient cyber environment. This year marks the 13th anniversary of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
“This annual event offered by the West Virginia Office of Technology provides an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of cyber security throughout the public sector as well as with our state citizens,” said Given. This year’s agenda will focus on dynamic presentations, delivered by world-class experts in the areas of cyber threats, effective practices to safeguard computer information, with an emphasis on individual responsibility, accountability, risk management and privacy issues. The featured presentations include:
• Unit 42 is the Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence team, which is made up of accomplished cybersecurity researchers and industry experts. Unit 42 gathers, researches, analyzes, and provides insights into the latest cyber threats, then shares it with Palo Alto Networks customers, partners and the broader community to better protect enterprise, service provider and government computing environments. Unit 42 also unearths adversary groups by analyzing data collected from the Palo Alto Networks security platform to provide context into an attacker’s motivations and methods.
• The MS-ISAC is the focal point for cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for the nation's state, local, tribal and territorial governments. The MS-ISAC 24x7 cybersecurity operations center provides real-time network monitoring, early cyber threat warnings and advisories, vulnerability identification, and mitigation and incident response.
Those interested in attending must pre-register at the website above and are encouraged to invite others to attend. This event will also be available as a live webcast for those unable to attend in person; however, pre-registration is still required.
Take these simple actions to keep you, your identity, and your information safe online:
• Set strong passwords with eight or more characters and a combination of numbers, letters and
symbols. Length is a key factor in strong passwords;
• Don’t use the same password on all your accounts;
• Don’t share passwords with anyone;
• Keep your operating system, browser and other critical software optimized by installing updates;
• Limit the amount of personal information you share online;
• Use privacy settings to avoid sharing information widely; and
• Be careful about what offers you receive. Remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.