Members of the business community gathered at the Kalona Area Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, May 17 for a business lunch sponsored by KCTC.  Chance Beachy and Jarett Truitt, both KCTC Service Techs, presented on the topic of cybersecurity and advised those gathered on how to stay secure on the internet.

The pair discussed cybersecurity at two levels: user and technology.

“A lot of cybersecurity starts with you and your ability to filter out messages that are phishing schemes or social engineering or things like that,” Beachy said.  “Your technology is only as secure as you are.”

He then outlined the proactive things internet and email users can do to keep their data secure, starting with creating hard-to-break passwords.  Beachy demonstrated how a single-word password could be broken by a hacker in less than a second, but a purely random password that integrates a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols in an unpredictable way would be much harder to break.

The team also covered how to remember passwords safely, using two-factor authentication, and how to identify if an email is legitimate (you might contact KCTC for help if you’re unsure).

In terms of technology, antivirus software, firewalls, and protection for your whole network of devices at the router level were discussed by Beachy and Truitt.  These are areas where KCTC can help as well.

If you’re interested in attending the Kalona Chamber’s next business lunch, visit their Facebook page for notification of the next date and topic.