A Herald-State College of Florida public forum on cyber security, identity theft

Last week President Obama put a bright spotlight on devilish issues that jeopardize all Americans: cyber security and identity theft.
Data breaches are all too commonplace today, with personal information and industrial secrets a gold mine for hackers operating for either profit or country.
The global threat is so pervasive and steady, nobody is immune. Last year, FBI Director James Comey told CBS' "60 Minutes" this: "There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who've been hacked ... and those who don't know they've been hacked ..."
While he was talking specifically about the Chinese, hackers around the world are at work.
Which is why Obama issued an executive order Wednesday empowering the Treasury Department to freeze the financial assets of Internet attackers who threaten our national and economic security.
That includes the theft of trade secrets and personal information, declaring a national emergency on these online threats.
The issue is particularly hot now with income tax season coming to a close, and some filers finding their identities compromised as thieves steal their returns.
To put this into focus, the Herald and State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota are holding our next Community Conversation on this issue -- on April 29.
This public forum offers you the opportunity to engage experts in information technology and security and learn about Internet vulnerability and risk awareness.
Presented by the Herald and SCF in partnership with Manatee Educational Television, we invite the public to not only attend, but to send us your questions and concerns about this vital issue ahead of the forum. We'll address as many of your questions as possible during the forum.
In order to keep the conversation moving along, there will not be an open mike for public comments and questions during the forum.
Please submit those in advance of the event to cwille@bradenton.com or send regular mail to Editorial Page Editor Chris Wille, 1111 Third Ave. W., Bradenton 34205. And please include your name.
The free forum will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. April 29 at SCF's Howard Studio Theater, located on the college's Bradenton campus in Building 11 West, off 60th Avenue West between 26th and 34th streets, accessed from Parking Lot I. Details can be found at www.scf.edu/maps.
The forum will be broadcast by METV at later dates.
The pervasive and insidious problem of data breaches is best illustrated by these figures:
• 80 million customers of the country's second largest health insurance company, Anthem, had their birthdays, Social Security numbers and employment information taken by cyber attackers, the firm announced in February.
• In December 2013 Target discovered individual contact information on 110 million customer accounts -- credit and debit details -- had been stolen.
• In September 2014, Home Depot reported credit card information of about 56 million shoppers was compromised.
State College of Florida is revamping its associate in science degree in Network Systems Technology this coming fall. That will include a Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics specialization, patterned after the National Security Administration's Center of Academic Excellence guidelines.
As the college notes, demand for cybersecurity professionals has grown 12 times faster than non-IT jobs, and 3.5 times faster than the demand for other IT jobs in recent years.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/07/5731893_a-herald-state-college-of-florida.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy