ROME, N.Y. (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) – “Cyber attacks are becoming more and more common and it’s especially frightening for small to medium businesses we see the attacks increase for small to medium rather than the larger enterprises that usually have better protections,” said Dr. Ersin Uzun, Executive Director of the ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Dr. Uzun explains that there are a few steps businesses can take to make sure that they do not become a victim of a cyber attack. One being making sure that your software is updated with anti-virus, and education of your employees.

“They are not necessarily going after the CEO they’ll go after anybody to your systems. cyber security is now a business risk and it as a business risk the way to people need to understand how this risk can really affect to protect themselves and really it starts with so that you can take the necessary steps,” said Uzun.

In recent years, there has been an increase in remote work, which could cause an increase in cyber attacks.

“You have a lot of different people accessing a lot of different resources from sometimes the personal it really increases the attack surface so I think this was a trend that was already in place just accelerated with COVID but we have the security tools and technology that might not protect some one hundred percent but in cyber security what I say is you don’t have to be faster than the bear you just have to be faster than the competitors the other people,” said Uzun.

Dr. Ersin says cybersecurity is a business risk and it needs to be treated as such, and that’s why the education on the potential attacks and damages at today’s summit and going forward is important.