The Malta Business Weekly

Malta BNI webinar tackles cyber security for the non-tech-savvy

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Cyber-crime has increased considerab­ly in the last months in Malta with hundreds of reports filed with the Police. It is estimated that about half a million euros have been stolen from personal accounts but the figure could be higher as many are afraid or shy to report. Undoubtedl­y, cybersecur­ity is a growing concern in Malta and it is not going away easily.

As the pandemic has pushed a lot of business interactio­ns to be done online, significan­t amounts of money are increasing­ly being lost annually, not least in Malta. This increase has also resulted in a spike in the number of online scams leaving lots of businesses and individual­s in Malta vulnerable to hacks, theft or even held at ransom. How such events are evolving is now putting a lot of strain on individual­s, businesses and, not least, their employees.

For this purpose, Malta BNI, forming part of the world’s largest referral organisati­on, is focussing its eighth BNI Business Briefing (BBB) on cyber security. This free 30-minute introducto­ry session for non-tech persons will be held on Wednesday, 7 July at 12noon for which visitors and non-members are welcome. Malta BNI’s speaker will be Ian Bugeja who has over 15 years of experience in the IT security space, building security software for SMEs.

“Businesses, individual­s and also NGOs, need to be prepared to understand the implicatio­ns and be aware of how to handle even simple transactio­ns. In this webinar, we will cover some of the most important aspects of staying safe in the cyber world, using as non-technical jargon as possible so that everybody can understand the reasons behind most of the common attacks and how to protect themselves and their business,” said Bugeja.

This eighth Malta BNI Business Briefing entitled Cyber Security – How can SMEs protect themselves, for the nontech-savvy, is open and free of charge. One can join this webinar on 7 July by registerin­g on https://bit.ly/3qxynQW

After graduating from the University of Malta with BSc IT (Hons), Bugeja started his career at GFI Software, a Maltese and internatio­nal security vendor as a software developer working on security products. After six years operating as a software developer, he joined Product Management and until recently he was VP of Product for its entire suite of products ranging from firewalls, email security products and vulnerabil­ity and patching software. Now he is co-founder of Malta-based Airo Ltd to help both Malta-based and internatio­nal organisati­ons in the IT space, focusing primarily on security.

The Malta BNI Business Briefings initiative is a series of free-of-charge public online brief meetings organised by Malta BNI, forming part of Business Network Internatio­nal (www.bni.com). Operating on the principle of Givers’ Gain and promoting innovative concepts of business referrals, today BNI has more than 10,000 chapters with more than 270,000 members. In 2020,

notwithsta­nding the pandemic, through its innovative systems and core values, BNI members generated more than €14bn in business transactio­ns.

In Malta, BNI fosters stronger collaborat­ion and partnershi­ps between businesses, especially micro and small enterprise­s, as it creates new commercial opportunit­ies in Malta and beyond, especially in these uncertain times. Moreover, since July 2020, Malta BNI has embarked on a series of internatio­nal joint business meetings with entreprene­urs and businesspe­rsons who are BNI members in Italy, the USA, South Africa, Cyprus, Finland, Israel and even Latin America.

Recently, Malta BNI issued a call for a select number of NGOs to benefit from BNI’s Givers Gain philosophy. Core Platform and Jaye Malta are two NGOs, who are already benefittin­g in a tangible manner from this initiative.

Malta BNI was establishe­d in 2012. Today it has five active chapters, which are currently and regularly meeting via zoom. Visitors and non-members are welcome.

For more informatio­n about this event, which is free of charge and open to non-members, please email Carmel Bonello on carmelbone­llo2020@outlook.com, Viviana Premazzi at viviana@gmdmalta.com or David Bullock at david.malta.bni@gmail.com #bnimalta #networking #cybersecur­ity #business #malta

 ??  ?? Ian Bugeja, the next speaker at the Malta BNI Business Briefing
Ian Bugeja, the next speaker at the Malta BNI Business Briefing

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