Meetings Industry Archives - John Sileo, Cyber Security Training

Posts tagged "Meetings Industry"

7 Data Theft Hotspots for Meeting Professionals

Everybody wants your data, especially when you are in the business of meetings. Your data doesn’t just have a high face value (e.g., the attendee data, including credit card numbers that you collect and store in your online registration system), it also has a high resale value .

Here is how the theft is most often committed in your industry:

Competitors hire one of your employees and they leave with a thumb drive full of confidential files, including client lists, personally identifying information on talent and employees, financial performance data, etc.
Social engineers (con artists) mine your employee’s Facebook profiles to gain a heightened level of trust which allows them to manipulate your human assets
Cyber criminals hack your lax computer network or sniff the unprotected wireless connections you and your employees use while traveling (Starbucks, hotels, airports).

13 Data Security Tips for Meeting Professionals – SGMP

I just finished delivering a keynote speech for the Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP) at their annual convention on identity theft and protecting data in the meetings industry. Data security is a top concern in this industry because it is probably one of the most highly-targeted groups for identity theft, social media fraud, data breach and social engineering. Here’s why:

Meeting professionals collect, store and transmit massive amounts of private data on attendees
Data theft risk skyrockets when travel is involved, which is a frequent occurrence for meeting planners and professionals
Meeting professionals are busy nearly 24 hours a day once they are onsite for the conference or meeting, meaning that they are highly distracted
A single data breach of attendee data can put the organization responsible for the event out of business due to excessive costs and tight compliance regulations