CFO Studio Magazine with Alison Cornell

EVENTS 26 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM Q1 2017 EXECUTIVE DINNER SERIES Cyber Vigilant CYBERSECURITY CONTINUES TO BE A TOP CONCERN AMONG CFOS F ran Shammo was prepared to talk about digital media and corporate communications in a virtual world that is rife with cyber criminals, and found the roomful of financial executives a more-than- willing audience. “I am very interested in knowing if CFOs at other companies are experiencing the same kind of apprehension and worry,” explained Mr. Shammo, who stepped down as Verizon’s CFO at the end of October in anticipation of his retirement at the end of the year. Less than a week after he spoke, Yahoo, which, two months earlier, Verizon announced it had plans to acquire, revealed that half a billion user accounts had been compromised. Mr. Shammo spoke on “Delivering Your Company’s Message in a Digitally RiskyWorld—Communications andMedia from the CFO’s View,” at a World-Class Companies CFODinner, part of CFOStudio’s Executive Dinner Series, held recently atThe Bernards Inn in Bernardsville, NJ. CFOs from select New Jersey–area companies attended the invitation-only dinner. Mr. Shammo said the intense discussion that followed his opening remarks on the cybersecurity concerns that plague himproved that “As CFOs, we’re all in this together when it comes to dealing with the very real and constant threats posed by cyber-attacks.” Mr. Shammo cited statistics from Verizon’s recent Data Breach Investigations Report, which shows that, among other things, passwords are still the weakest link in the chain. “Sixty-three percent of confirmed data breaches involve using weak, default, or stolen passwords,” he said. This resonated with dinner participants who said they do, indeed, take the issue of passwords very seriously, and noted that password-enforcement programs are in place at each of their respective companies. Mr. Shammo mentioned that Verizon forces automatic password changes on its corporate network every 30 days, which elicited several nods of agreement around the table. Participants expressed curiosity about the kinds of attacks that have taken place at Verizon. “Given the scope of service Verizon provides,” Mr. Shammo said, “we see almost every kind of attack on a regular basis, and we’re constantly trying to find ways to educate employees to be ever-wary of phishing scams and ransomware.”The group was familiar with the more common phishing scams in which a fraudulent email, appearing to come from a legitimate source, requests personal information. However, ransomware needed a bit of an explanation, which Mr. Shammo provided: “It’s a type of malicious software, or ‘malware,’ that prevents users from accessing their system until a sum of money is paid.” This caught the attention of Greg Douglas, Vice President of Sales for Eatontown-based Yorktel, a video- communications and managed services provider, and a CFO Studio Business Development Partner. “It’s so important that everyone be informed and trained on cybersecurity. It’s not just for the people in Information Technology (IT), as the threat is huge.” BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS