[Cialug] OT - Save the Dates: Infragard Quarterly Meeting, with NIST and SBA

[Josh More]

This is off topic, but it's important.  A lot of you work with small business.  I'm working on a program to help improve the security for small to medium-sized businesses, so I'd appreciate it if you could spread the word to folks.

Much focus in the security community has been spent on large companies.  This makes sense, as they are the biggest targets and are often attacked.  However, it also means that small businesses are often left to flounder.  As attacks against these companies increase, there is a need to discuss the nature of security in smaller environments and how best to budget for protection.

Infragard, in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), is please to announce two events this summer aimed at protecting small business.

July 29, 2010 - 1pm to 7pm
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Building (IBEW)
1211 Wiley Boulevard
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404

August 26, 2010 - 8am to 4:30pm
DMACC, Ankeny
FFA Enrichment Center, Room # 108
1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy
Ankeny, IA 50023

The meetings will open with a four hour workshop lead by NIST, and will teach the small business owner/manager/operator about security threats and how to deal with them.  Then, following a short break, Infragard will present specific and actionable presentations building on the foundation that NIST has provided.

If you are in a small business or work with a small to medium-sized business, please plan to attend one of these meetings.  If you have friends or family who are in the small to medium-sized business space, please encourage them to attend as well.

Questions to ask yourself:

* What happens to my business if my sensitive business information falls into someone else’s possession?

* What would it cost me to be without some or all of my sensitive business information?

* Could I recreate lost sensitive business information and what would be the cost?

* What would be the implications to my business if I could no longer trust the accuracy or completeness of my sensitive business information?


Please RSVP at:  http://www.sba.gov/ia/desmo  (Click the register button under "Spotlight")


If you wish a printable flyer to promote to your network, you may find it at http://www.iowainfragard.org/docs/NIST-SBA-Infragard-Summer-2010.doc


Please help us to get the word out.  Regardless of the size of your company or what you do, we all have to pull together and help protect everyone, or the risk goes up for all of us.


Thank you,

-Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net
515-245-7701