Welcome to this special edition of the Cybertraps podcast.
We are here live at the Inch360 event in Spokane, Washington on
the beautiful Gonzaga campus.
In fact, I'm looking over the soccer field, which is pretty cool.
It's nice here.
Today, I have Sean Hafen with me from Spokane Teachers Credit Union.
Sean, welcome to the podcast.
Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Thank you.
Uh, so yeah, I've been at STCU for about nine years now and I manage the
wonderful C Cybersecurity team there.
And we have a team of five individuals that, uh, keep
everybody's information safe.
I also teach for the bachelor's program for C Cybersecurity at SFCC.
um, lot of connect points and touch points with some of the individuals here.
Okay, very cool.
So, uh, what brought you to this conference, yourself, but
then also as, uh, STCU as an
organization?
I think we, as an organization, find that it's extremely important to be
engaged with the community, uh, when it comes to all facets and all events,
but, uh, for my team specifically and everyone, uh, that I work with, the
cybersecurity component of it we see as a Very necessary and needed component.
In the Spokane area, we need to make sure that we have, you know, an awareness
and involvement, you know, just make sure that everybody knows that there
is something like this event going on.
Uh, it's very important to see who's interested in this stuff, who's out
there, what are they doing, who are they doing it for, and just build those
connections, uh, those are, uh, important.
handy.
It'll be valuable.
Yeah.
and can you talk a little bit about why it's important for these really hyper
local type of events, especially because it's one thing to go to a national or
state level cybersecurity conference, but this is really focused here in Spokane.
And what are your thoughts on
that?
Yeah, it is very important in Spokane, specifically, because
we are so far from Seattle.
Seattle does seem to get a lot of the attention.
Um, With the conferences.
Uh, but because we are close to the Idaho border, we have, you know, Idaho area
and the Spokane area kind of combined into one for some of these events.
So it's just, it's important that the vendors that show up to these
or sponsor these, uh, know that it is a four hour drive to Seattle.
Mm-Hmm.
. And we do have an audience here in the Spokane vicinity, so it's
nice to see that that's starting to be recognized a little bit more.
Uh, with events like this coming up, I think this is the second one.
Um, and we've got some more events coming up in the future, first
quarter next year, similar to this.
Uh, so it's just nice to see that, grow and expand and a lot of the
people who live in the area or the students that attend the cyber
security type classes in this area.
Uh, you need to have more resources to pull from, such as these conferences.
Yeah, I, I agree.
I think that's so powerful for, the students, but then also, uh, small
businesses who wouldn't necessarily go to a cyber security conference in Seattle.
It's honestly kind of hard to justify that, but it's here in your backyard.
It makes it a lot easier.
what are some of the things that you're hoping to get out of
this, for yourself personally?
I think aside from just touching base with my peers and cohorts and the
different, you know, businesses that are here, answering questions, you get
a lot of questions from people who, you know, they may have just showed up
to this first time they've been to a conference, pertaining to cybersecurity,
and they're going to ask you the typical questions you would expect.
How do I protect myself?
If I have a small business, how do I protect that small business?
How do I keep my employees safe?
Um, what tools are out there that aren't expensive and they're
not going to break the bank.
And I love talking about the kind of things that you can get for low or no
cost that will give you that solution.
And so at events like this are perfect for that.
You also do learn a lot of new things.
I've been in this field for a long time, but I'm still learning and You
talk to the other people who are doing this, and you bounce ideas off of each
other, you ask each other questions, and there's a lot of information sharing.
Very valuable.
Yeah, so, let's talk about some of those strategies, tools, resources, whatever
you wanna, whatever you wanna share.
Uh, Najee, who we just talked to a little bit ago, he mentioned having,
uh, good cyber security hygiene.
And so, what is one thing that you regularly recommend to small buisness
owners about what they can do
I would say no matter how small your buisness is, or if its
just you Jethro, Jethro, Jethro, podcast or blog post or article
Jethro, Jethro, Jethro, Jethro, Jethro, Uh, scams around taxes or
Amazon shipments and things like that.
So if you have that awareness, that's your first step into knowing, you know,
what should I look out for in my inbox?
Uh, sent email we all know is one of the most common forms that somebody
can kind of get into your business.
Uh, it's very important for people to be aware that they can look
out for those type of scams, especially this time of year.
Yeah.
Um, and are there any blogs, podcasts that you recommend that
people should pay attention to?
Uh, there are some quick hit podcasts.
There's one called the, um, Daily Internet Storm podcast.
It's just a quick ten minute, this is what's going on out in the industry
and in the cyber security realm.
Uh, he just kind of breaks things down on a daily basis.
Uh, and it's a quick one, so you don't really have to set aside
a half hour or an hour to just sit and listen to it, you know.
There's a lot of things out there, if you just search for cyber security podcasts,
uh, you can come up with quite a few.
If you want one that's funny and entertaining, uh, I recommend
one called Smashing Security.
Very, um, Light hearted and not always cyber security related so
you can have fun listening to it.
Okay,
good.
And, uh, we try to have a fun time here on Cybertraps also when Fred is
here, he's my co host, uh, typically.
so that was Smashing Security and what was the other one again?
Uh,
it's Icecast or Internet Security Stormcast.
Okay.
Uh, it's just, like I said, it's just a nine or ten minute quick one that.
He puts out every morning.
Okay, alright.
Uh, Sean, any resources that you want to share on behalf of STCU?
Uh, yeah, we do have a lot of information that we can provide if any of our
members or non members are out there and they have questions about security.
We're always happy to help, whether it's, you know, fraud or identity
theft or cybersecurity itself.
Um, we see a lot of the bad guys making their attempts to get into your banking
information or to get you to give up your passwords and your usernames.
So we have some resources on our external website.
Um, but we're also at events like this, we're open to discuss
or answer any questions too.
Okay, well thank you Sean, appreciate you being here and taking
the time to chat with us today.
Absolutely, thank you so much.
And thanks for your support of Ench360, it's really awesome
that you're doing that.
Thank you.