09/26/2025

002. Stop Today's Hackers - Empowering Distribution Leaders to be Cloud and Cyber Security Savvy

Instructor: Mike Foster

Level of Complexity: Intermediate
10:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Mike expanded this must-see session to include both Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. AI is revolutionizing personal and business lives, and it's never been more important to understand how to harness its power. This is a perfect combination of two powerful technologies that are vital for your organization's success. Mike tailors the presentation based on a quick 5-minute pre-presentation survey your participants fill out so he delivers what your participants want most. Every minute of every day, someone is trying to exploit the security systems that protect a company's information technology systems. Do your participants know how to keep their organization and their data safe? In this eye-opening session, Mike Foster will help distribution leaders understand the threats that lurk, as well as give them the tools and information they need to make positive changes in their organization's IT practices. Participants will learn how to protect their companies from various threats, including:

• Being held hostage by ransomware

• Keeping the trust of their customers and trading partners

• Losses related to wiring money to wrong accounts

• Exposing sensitive data that can result in enormous fines

• Leaking of trade secrets and intellectual property to competitors

• Avoid losing future business because of brand devaluation after a breach

• Avoiding legal fees from data breach lawsuits and regulatory violations

• Having their systems locked, preventing them from delivering products or services

• Helping secure AI implementations to prevent data leaks and unauthorized access

• Credit card breaches that can result in massive fines and the inability to process card payments

• AI security risks and how to protect sensitive data when using AI tools such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini. Entire organizations, from the emails that crisscross a company's communications infrastructure, to private information stored in the cloud, to the documents that convey confidential information, to the data that protects the integrity of their operations, are all dependent on the organization's cyber security. Give your participants the know-how they need to keep their organizations secure. Value to Participant Mike Foster delivers maximum results in the form of actionable steps that prompt participants to make positive change. It is common for participants to exclaim, "I took more notes today than in any other meeting! I'm going to make these changes today."

• Participants will leave this session with notepads full of personalized, concrete, and understandable ACTION items to immediately implement at work and home so they can sleep better at night.

• Participants will gain an understanding of the enormous risks they and their employees unknowingly take each day and how to stop them.

• Participants will receive a personal checklist of simple, valuable action steps that can cost little to no money to implement to help ensure their IT investments are pulling their weight and delivering results.

• Participants will receive a list of action steps that can save their organizations millions of dollars by avoiding a hacker attack that could destroy their reputation and company.

• Attackers take advantage of the vastly increased opportunities to break into organizations through users who work from home offices. Participants learn essential steps to protect against hackers gaining access through remote user systems.

• Participants learn that some technologies, such as VPNs, can be far less secure than advertised. And they'll understand, in plain English, how to make them safer.

• Participants leave better equipped to implement AI securely and protect their organizations from emerging AI-related threats.