The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Oklahoma District Office, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are sponsoring a free workshop for small business owners and organizations to learn how to secure their electronic data.  The Information and Cyber Security Workshop will be held June 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Francis Tuttle Tech campus, 12777 N. Rockwell, Building 1, Room 1330.

    Richard Kissel, senior information security analyst for NIST, will lead the Oklahoma City workshop.  With over 20 years experience in the information security profession, Kissel is author of the guide Small Business Information Security.  He spends his time on the road educating entrepreneurs about the potential security trouble spots caused by e-mail, social media, online banking, web surfing and downloading software.

    “There’s a very small set of actions that a small business can do to avoid being an easy target for hackers and cyber criminals,” said Kissel.  “But, they have to be done and done consistently.”

    An important part of SBA’s mission is to ensure small business owners are prepared to deal with a disaster, said Dottie Overal, Oklahoma District Director.  “An electronic disaster can be just as devastating to a small business as a natural disaster.  This workshop is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn from the best regarding current technologies used to reduce cyber vulnerabilities. We’re proud to be one of only 13 cities in the country to offer this training in 2010.”

    To register for the workshop, please call the Oklahoma District Office at 405-609-8000.  For more information, please visit http://www.okcscore.org/images/6_24Flyer.pdf .

FAQs Information & Cyber Security Workshop

  Just what is a workshop on Information & Cyber Security anyway?

The workshop will include:

• How to protect your business from intentional attacks from within or without
• How to protect from unintentional damage by well meaning employees
• How to guard against the embarrassment, legal liability or decreased productivity of security breaches
• How to evaluate security tools and techniques based on your needs.

 Who is the speaker? 

Richard Kissel is responsible for helping develop national information and cyber security standards and is a specialist in the small business arena.  He has written articles and booklets on the subject and conducts workshops around the country.  He is Senior Information Security Analyst for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Who should attend? 

Anyone interested in how to improve computer security for small/medium size businesses should attend.  This includes small business owners, local government employees, educators, non-profit organizations, and IT service providers who support smaller business clients.

 Where and when is the workshop? 

June 24th

8:30am to 12:30pm

Francis Tuttle (Rockwell Campus), Bldg. 1, Room 1330

 Who are the sponsors of the workshop?

    SBA, SCORE, Francis Tuttle… and two you might be unfamiliar with; NIST and FBI:

    NIST – The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a very big deal in the IT world, NIST defines the standards for information security.  Their 800.53 standards are what federal agencies must comply with.  National Institute of Standards and Technology.  NIST’s development of encryption standards for information technology have been estimated to have saved private industry more than $1 billion while enabling consumers to be confident about the security of electronic data transactions

    FBI –FBI’s Infragard is a partnership between FBI and the private sector dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States.  Their main emphasis is on cyber crimes.