Current, ex-FBI agents to speak at BC3’s free cybersecurity conference
Current and retired FBI agents and other experts will address emerging cybersecurity threats and strategies to protect data during a free public conference from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 10 in Founders Hall on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township.
Those seeking to attend the Defend Your Data: Cybersecurity Awareness Conference should register by April 6 at bc3.edu/cyber-conference.
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating national security-related cyberattacks and intrusions. It collects and shares intelligence and engages with victims while seeking to identify suspects who compromise business emails, steal identities, launch ransomware attacks or conduct spoofing and phishing schemes.
The bureau reported in 2024 that its internet crime complaint center in 2023 received a record 880,000 complaints from American citizens with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion.
Phishing schemes were the most frequently reported crime in 2023 and accounted for about 34% of all complaints, according to the FBI. The trick includes unsolicited emails, text messages and telephone calls purportedly from a legitimate company to request personal or financial information, or to gain access to login credentials, according to the FBI.
Kimberly Fish, a professor whose courses at BC3 include those in the college’s associate degree career program in computer information systems-networking and cybersecurity, organized the conference and will serve as its master of ceremonies.
“Although this conference is most important to information technology professionals, cybersecurity can no longer be just an IT problem,” Fish said. “Cybersecurity is for everyone. Businesses have to make sure their customer data is secure. They have to make sure their employees are following and practicing cybersecurity protocols to keep that data safe.
“So it is really critical for them too.”
Speakers at BC3 will include Jonathan Holmes, a supervisory special agent with the FBI; Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI special agent from Kansas City; Manoj Tandon, Dark Rhino Security, Dublin, Ohio; Duc Nguyen, N&N Forensics, Houston, Texas, and Latrobe; Joshua Pribanic, LastLine Cyber, Pittsburgh; and Joseph Motonis, Cyber Defenders, Renfrew.
Tandon, Nguyen and Pribanic also shared their expertise about reducing threats during a free public cybersecurity awareness conference in April 2024 at BC3.
In his 16 years with the FBI, Holmes has participated in cyber national security and cybercriminal investigations in the bureau’s Los Angeles and Milwaukee field offices, as well as at FBI headquarters. He currently supervises a squad investigating cybercriminal matters in the Pittsburgh field office.
Holmes will discuss current cybercrime trends for business.
Lanza in his 20 years with the FBI investigated cybercrimes and is the author of “Cybercrime: How to Stay Safe from Online Fraud and Identity Theft,” published by Communication Dynamics Publishing in 2017. He has appeared on the “TODAY show,” “Good Morning America,” “Dateline NBC” and “Larry King Live.”
Lanza will address the conference virtually about cybercrime prevention for business.
Tandon, co-founder and chief executive officer, Dark Rhino Security, will speak about how to prepare for and deal with a cybersecurity incident. Nguyen, co-founder and partner of N&N Forensics, will discuss departing employee investigations: a case example; Pribanic, president and co-founder of LastLine Cyber, will speak about common cyber risks seen in the field; and Motonis, founding partner, Cyber Defenders, about thinking like a hacker to protect your network.
BC3 is a partner in a Pennsylvania Community College Consortium Cooperative Agreement led by Indiana University of Pennsylvania and funded by a U.S. Department of Defense grant.
Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. Breakfast snacks and lunch will be provided.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
