Until this week, I thought drive-bys were something that happened in the inner city. Spear phishing sounded like my nephew’s favorite pastime in the Florida Keys. Zeus was an ancient god, sitting high atop Mount Olympus.
I also thought that as long as I didn’t respond to any emails hawking cheap Viagra or male enhancement (as tempting as that is), and avoided opening suspect email attachments, that I’d be safe from harmful computer viruses.
Oh, how naive I was.
Little did I know how vulnerable we truly are to the evil doers of the world. Now I can’t close my eyes without visualizing evil Eastern European crime syndicates camped out inside my computer, plotting how to get their grimy little hands on all my personal information.
I know what you’re thinking: that sounds a little far fetched. I’ll admit, I’ve got an overactive imagination. But in this case, my description isn’t too far off. I mean, there are no Ukrainians actually crouched inside my computer monitor. But they might as well be, since malware like that Zeus virus I mentioned gives these cybercriminals access to your most sensitive financial information. And with that in hand, its only a matter of time before what was once yours, is now theirs.
As I said, I was blissfully unaware of all of this until earlier this week, when I sat down with two NBT execs who are experts on the topic: Joe Stagliano and Jim Terry. The two presented during a Cybercrime Prevention forum on Tuesday morning at Canasawacta Country Club, which NBT hosted in conjunction with Commerce Chenango. But I had the opportunity to sit down with both men the day before, to get both a preview of the event and a little background about the information sessions they’ve been hosting in New York and Pennsylvania to help educate people and businesses on how to protect themselves against cybercrime.
To say it was eye-opening would be an understatement.
About 30 seconds into our conversation – right after I heard the $117 billion figure – I was ready to throw in my internet towel and swear off computers from now until the end of time.
But Joe and Jim talked me down off the ledge, so to speak. As you can see, I’m still tapping away at my computer keyboard and surfing my merry way around the internet. Albeit a little more carefully since the enlightening hour I spent with these gentlemen.
I’ve always thought of careers in banking as staid, conservative and, sorry to say, more than a bit boring. But that was before I heard what Jim did for a living. As NBT’s Senior VP and Bank Secrecy Officer (which has to be the coolest title in the entire financial industry), he battles cybercriminals, money launderers and the like on a daily basis, often working in conjunction with the FBI and state police.
By comparison, Joe’s title as Chief Information Officer doesn’t sound quite as exciting. Although, important nonetheless.
You get the picture, right? These are the guys who lose sleep at night sweating over the finer details so the rest of us don’t have to.
My question to them was why, when obviously they’ve already got a lot on their plate keeping NBT’s systems and resources “safe, sound and secure,” are they so committed to educating businesses and individuals on the dangers that are out there.
Jim was the one that explained it to me. He said that the more people are aware of the threats that are out there, of the lengths cybercriminals will go to and the true scope of the problem, the more they will be able to protect themselves and their bank accounts from these thieves.
