Penn State Shenango VenturePointe and eCenter to Host Cybersecurity Info Session for Small Businesses

According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of data breaches involve small- and medium-sized business. Penn State Shenango and the eCenter@LindenPointe will host a free virtual presentation with cybersecurity experts at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 21, via Penn State Shenango’s YouTube channel. 

“Hackers know that many smaller organizations are not prepared against many types of security breaches,” said Matthew DeMaria, cybersecurity program coordinator at Penn State Shenango. “Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report notes that the average cost of a cyberattack has exploded to just under $200,000 for a single incident. We want to help our community businesses be proactive.” 

Viewers will be presented information to help businesses understand their risk and learn how to take precautions from a panel of three local experts. 

Expert panel 

• Matthew DeMaria, cybersecurity analytics and insights program coordinator at Penn State Shenango. 
• Brad Mantzell, vice president and certified risk architect at Gilbert’s Risk Solutions. 
• Jeff Meier, Executive Director, Lindenpointe Development Corporation and Former Chief Information Security Officer at Fujitsu North America. 

The live event will air on Penn State Shenango’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/pennstateshenango) at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 21. Questions from the audience will be answered after the presentation. Contact Georgia Macris, VenturePointe coordinator, at gxm23@psu.edu for more information.