Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke on Monday welcomed a panel of cyber security experts to Brooklyn to discuss the best methods for individuals and business owners to protect their private information on the internet.
The panel included Michael Kaiser, Executive Director of the National Cyber Security Alliance; William H. Efron, Northeast Region Director of the Federal Trade Commission; Brian Rauer, Executive Director of the Mid-Hudson Region and General Counsel for the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York; and Mitch Thompson, Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Kristin Judge of the National Cyber Security Alliance offered instructions on multifactoral authentication, which requires multiple methods of verifying identity to access private information.
“Much of our personal information — our text messages and e-mails, our credit card numbers, the records of our purchases and the websites we have visited — exists online, and, therefore, remains susceptible to hackers who want unauthorized access to our information to steal from our bank accounts or commit identity theft,” said Clarke, who represents the Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn.
“As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, I have an opportunity to develop policies that will protect consumers and businesses from those cyber criminals who want to exploit vulnerabilities and who access compromised systems to interfere in our networks and in our lives,” she added.
“Individuals have a role in this effort as well. Hackers will always want to steal your information: your credit card number, your Social Security number, the personal information you want to keep secret and that you have every right to keep secret,” Clarke continued.
In noting that hackers are sophisticated, she said must, therefore, also become sophisticated in “our use of Internet, in the passwords we use, in the websites we access, and the websites we choose to avoid.
“I commend the National Cyber Security Alliance, the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their commitment to assisting Internet users to protect themselves, their families, and their businesses from cyber criminals,” Clarke said.
Judge said, from small business to consumers, “every digital user needs to be aware of the available tools to better protect personal information from cyber criminals,
“It takes less than a minute to set up an extra layer of protection like multifactoral authentication on your e-mail, bank, or social network account but an eternity to recoup your loss from a hack, so we urge all digital citizens to get two steps ahead,” Judge said.
