Latino Leaders: What threats are currently trending?

Nancy Sabino: While ransomware continues to rise, the threat that is trending by far is a lack of education and awareness on the end user side. Users are the first line of defense and can make the difference between a data breach or an attack being successful or not. 90% of data breaches are inadvertent, unintentional, and caused by humans making that one of the highest trending threats in my opinion.

LL: What is the approach you and your company are taking to protect either business or consumer interests?

NS: We have built our business model and service offering with protecting our clients, their employees, their clients or patients and their data in mind. Our internal processes and procedures are the same if not more stringent than what we expect to put in place for our clients and then we provide all the necessary tools and services to protect them as much as possible. We implement firewalls, password rules, file monitoring, 2Factor Authentication, Advanced Spam filtering and link protection, end-user awareness training and testing, on top of the usual efforts like anti-virus, backups etc.

LL: In terms of legislation for digital security, what are the challenges? What steps are being taken to address it?

NS: On a federal level we have a few regulations like HIPAA, GLBA, and FISMAA that give guidelines, requirements, as well as addressable items for certain levels of businesses, providers or government officials to abide by but it by no means covers or extends to enough businesses or industries. This means that it becomes a choice in many cases or scenarios and well, if there are no consequences many don’t think they have to protect themselves at the same level.

On a state level, here in Texas the focus is placed on utilities and education which are also great and necessary, but it once again leaves out a large portion of the population which contribute to our economy which are the small and medium sized businesses. Without having those same guidelines, the level of importance is not placed on Cybersecurity until something bad happens and if we learn anything, prevention is less costly than intervention. If our laws pushed a bit more towards prevention, all of our citizens’ sensitive information and identities would be more protected.

LL: What can be done to expand Latino talent specifically in this industry?

NS: Exposure and education especially in the communities where Latinos reside, work and where children are educated. There should be programs at schools with mentors, presentations and activities around technology and cybersecurity. They need to know that this is an industry where they can thrive, have space in, and make a difference in.

I sit on the board of a non-profit organization called Nerdy Girl Success whose mission is to provide leadership and entrepreneurship exposure, education and mentorship to high school girls and through this program, I have seen what a difference exposure, education and career support can make with what the next generation feels is possible for them especially if this is not a part of their regular world.

Nancy Sabino, CEO of SabinoCompTech, Shares What Her Company is Doing to Protect Client and Employee Data