Author: Halyna Hyryavets

Most SMB owners are not considered an attractive target for hackers and cyber security threats due to their size. They often believe that the target of cyber attacks are government organizations or large businesses. Hackers do not discriminate according to the size of the company. On the contrary. They consider small and medium-sized enterprises to be very attractive targets mainly due to their vulnerability, relatively weaker security infrastructure, and the fact that they are part of the supply chains of larger enterprises.

Hackers are also using small and medium-sized businesses to improve their hacking practices, with the intention of stealing employee and customer records, bank account information and access to corporate finances, opening the door to bigger fish. This fact is also confirmed by the Accenture Cybercrime study, which reveals that up to 43% of cyber attacks were aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.

Don't become a statistic

According to the World Economic Forum, human error is the leading cause of cybersecurity breaches. Most often, small and medium-sized businesses are attacked via email. According to Cisco, up to 95% of cyber attacks begin with spear-phishing emails that target employees responsible for finance or managing sensitive personal information.

As reported by smallbiztrends.com, last year up to 40% of small businesses reported data loss due to a cyber attack, causing significant operational disruption, financial loss, reputational damage and customer churn due to security and privacy concerns.

More interestingly, the Ponemon Institute found that up to 60% of small and medium-sized businesses do not have an incident response plan in place or a plan to educate employees on cybersecurity, while employees play an important role in maintaining a secure work environment. Small and medium-sized businesses should regularly organize training sessions to educate employees on best practices, such as recognizing phishing emails, how to avoid suspicious links, or how to report potential security incidents.

Get ready for the mandatory Cyber Era

As technology advances, the risk of cyber attacks will continue to grow. Small and medium-sized businesses must prioritize cyber security to protect their customers, employees and financial stability. The European Union is already aware of this, which introduced a new mandatory directive on network and information systems (NIS2) valid from 16.1.2023 also in Slovakia with the aim of creating a framework for increasing cyber security in various sectors based on the amendment and amendment of the Cyber Security Act and of relevant decrees 69/2018 Coll.

     Based on legislative changes, the scope and number of entities that will have to fall under this law will also be defined. This group will include e.g. companies with more than 50 employees and a turnover of more than EUR 10 million. They can already be inspired by the updated decree 264/2023 and prepare for the given obligations. This includes conducting regular risk assessments, identifying vulnerabilities and taking appropriate risk mitigation measures. In addition, businesses must report significant cybersecurity incidents to relevant national authorities.

Get cybersecurity best practices

Qubit Conference® is already bringing a practical all-day training to Košice on November 9 specially tailored for small and medium-sized businesses, it will help you understand the most important cybersecurity requirements in line with the upcoming legislative measures and provide practical guidance for their immediate implementation.

The introduction to the training will go over the legal context for statutory security frameworks and standards, and show why to follow the framework and why not ad-hoc. It will reveal where cyber security begins, clarify the concept of cyber hygiene. Subsequently, he will reveal what you really need to invest in and thus avoid mindlessly spending money on ineffective security solutions, but also how today it is possible to optimize the use of social networks so that you do not leave unwanted traces in the digital space and prevent unwanted hacker attacks on your business. In conclusion, the training will clarify that the incident should not be feared, but should be prepared for in order to minimize losses. You will learn how and why to back up data at all, how to communicate an incident, how to learn from it and where to seek help.

Standard access to high-performance computing resources is open to all areas of science and research, especially for larger-scale projects. These projects should demonstrate excellence in the respective fields and a clear potential to bring innovative solutions to current social and technological challenges. In the application, it is necessary to demonstrate the efficiency and scalability of the proposed calculation strategies and methods in the HPC environment. The necessary data on the performance and parameters of the considered algorithms and applications can be obtained within the Testing Access.

Allocations are awarded for one (1) year with the option to apply for extension, if necessary. Access is free of charge, provided that all requirements defined in the Terms of reference  are met. Submitted projects are evaluated from a technical point of view by the internal team of CC SAS and SK NSCC, and the quality of the scientific and research part is always evaluated by two independent external reviewers.

Call opening date: 6.10.2023
Call closing date: 31.10. 2023, 17:00 CET
Communication of allocation decision: Within 2 weeks of project submission.
Začiatok doby alokácie: najneskôr 16. 11. 2023

Eligible Researchers Scientists and researchers from Slovak public universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as from public and state administration organizations and private enterprises registered in the Slovak Republic, can apply for standard access to HPC. Access is provided exclusively for civil and non-commercial open-science research and development. Interested parties from private companies should first contact the National Competence Centre for HPC.

Allocation period: 1 year

Overall allocation offered in the Call: 26 M CPU core-hours and 92k GPU-hours

Available systems: Devana supercomputer  universal CPU and accelerated GPU module

Expected project outcomes:

• Final report within 2 months from the end of the project.
• Peer-review and other publications in domestic and foreign scientific periodicals with acknowledgments in the pre-defined wording, reported through the user portal.
• Active participation in the Slovak HPC conference organized by the coordinator of this call (poster, other contribution).
• Participation in dissemination activities of the coordinator (interview, article in the HPC magazine, etc.).

Hub for the most important cybersecurity news

Qubit Conference® Košice offers a rich program full of panel discussions covering a wide range of topics, from innovative security approaches, to agile team security and security tools and techniques in agile environments, to the latest AI news and its unconventional use. The program will conclude with new cyber education styles and the main challenges and problems in OT security.

Expert workshops

A unique aspect of Qubit Conference® is its commitment to practical education. Workshops are an integral part of the event and allow participants to gain hands-on experience in various areas of cybersecurity. At the autumn format of the conference, participants can look forward to up to 3 full-day practical workshops..

The "From Audit to Incident Response Plan" workshop is focused on all areas of cybersecurity that organizations should not neglect. It will go through the entire process, from assessing the current state of security, through modern cyber threats, to preparing for potential attacks.

The second workshop focuses on the challenges of hardening and ways to control data collection activities. The third workshop provides a comprehensive overview of the use of artificial intelligence in various areas. After completing any workshop, participants can apply for continuing education credits in the form of CPE and ECE credits.

A special feature of the autumn format of the conference is a training course for small and medium-sized businesses.

The conference is opening its doors to small and medium-sized businesses for the first time in the form of a full-day practical cybersecurity training course Prepare for the CYBER ERA.

The training will cover the legal implications of NIS2 and the Cybersecurity Act, which are already mandatory for some sectors and will become mandatory for others after legislative changes in the National Council of the Slovak Republic (NRSR) soon. It will reveal what you really need to invest in to avoid wasting money on ineffective security solutions, as well as how to optimize the use of social media today so that you don't leave unwanted traces in the digital space and prevent unwanted hacker attacks on your business.

Networking opportunity of the year

Everyone who has experienced Qubit Conference® knows that it is the cyber networking opportunity of the year.

The conference is an excellent platform that offers a unique space to connect with experts, share experiences, and collaborate within the cybersecurity community. Building relationships with experts can open doors to exciting career opportunities and collaborations that could otherwise remain hidden.

The latest Slovak supercomputer, Devana, has a total performance of 800 TFlop/s, making it the most powerful publicly accessible supercomputer in the country. In addition to a standard CPU section, Devana also offers an accelerated environment for AI and machine learning tasks. A professional HPC team is available to help companies transfer data and applications to Devana and train their employees on how to use it.

What are the potential benefits for a company that takes advantage of this opportunity?

• Get free access to a powerful supercomputer that can help you speed up and streamline even the most complex computing tasks.
• A web-based interface for HPC using Open OnDemand makes it easy for anyone to use, even if you're not familiar with Linux or the command line.
• Devana offers the opportunity to experiment with using multiple GPU accelerators in parallel to train large AI/ML models.
• Interaktívne počítanie – Jupyter Notebook, Devana Desktop.
• RStudio server for data processing.
• The Singularity containerization platform.
• Ansys software suite for multiphysics simulations.

By using this opportunity, companies will also provide valuable insights and feedback to our HPC service providers, NSCC and CC SAS. This information will help our national HPC center develop new tools and services that are tailored to the needs of businesses.

Getting free access to Devana is easy. Just contact the HPC team, send basic information about the company and its activities HERE Don't hesitate to take advantage of this unique opportunity to improve your products, streamline your processes, and accelerate your research and development projects.

Unfortunately, small and medium-sized businesses in Slovakia and the Czech Republic often do not address the risks associated with their online presence. This opens the door to hacker attacks, which can lead not only to damage to a company's reputation, but also to problems that can ultimately lead to the collapse of the business. And that's certainly something you don't want. Fortunately, there is also someone on the home front who can lend a helping hand.

Cybersecurity without stress – FREE webinar

Qubit Conference® is organizing a FREE webinar called Cybersecurity without stressin cooperation with Edenred Slovakia. The webinar will take place on September 13, 2023 at 2:00 PM. This online webinar is intended for small and medium-sized businesses that want to improve their cybersecurity standards, protect their businesses, and ensure their continuity in the years to come.

The webinar Cybersecurity without stress will provide up-to-date insights from the world of cybersecurity and present effective strategies that can protect businesses from hacker attacks, password breaches, and data leaks. Their subsequent implementation will lead to more efficient and secure business operations, as well as a significant improvement in the company's reputation.

The number of places is limited. So don't hesitate to register for the FREE webinar Cybersecurity without stress todays!

Small and medium-sized businesses are at risk

Až 43% of all cyberattacks are targeted at small and medium-sized businesses. Why are these businesses so vulnerable?

There are several reasons. Hackers target them primarily because they are vulnerable and exploit their cybersecurity ignorance. Such companies often do not have the resources – both financial and human – to pay enough attention to cybersecurity.

Many business owners, especially in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, do not even perceive the threats of cyberattacks. They do not see it as a problem and therefore carelessly neglect cybersecurity. Unfortunately, if a risk does occur, it is usually too late.

Cyberattacks on small and medium-sized businesses often have a fatal impact on their operations and in many cases such companies end up. The result is financial losses, laid-off employees, and in the worst cases even legal problems. However, this can be prevented when you invest time and energy into cybersecurity awareness.

Viruses, stolen passwords, and leaks of sensitive data

Neglecting cybersecurity opens the door to viruses, trojans, stolen passwords, and leaks of sensitive data. In many cases, there is nothing that can be done about it. For example, with ransomware, hackers will encrypt all of your files on your storage device and demand a ransom that often does not even help. This is how many companies have lost all of their data, especially if they did not back it up.

Stolen passwords and leaks of customer data are especially sensitive. These increase customer outrage, damage the company's reputation, and can even lead to legal consequences.

The truth is that the best defense is prevention. And the first step can be the online webinar . Cybersecurity without stressSo don't hesitate, register for FREE and protect your business.

Registration

On November 8-9, 2023 in Košice, interesting speakers and panel discussions, sharing of practical experience of professionals in the field of information and cyber security, interactive training and popular networking await you. Come and share valuable knowledge and experience in the area of development, current regulations and trends in IT security and digital transformation, taking into account the key ways of managing organizations.

Do not miss:

• Inspirational panel discussions and presentations by leading speakers.
• Training for small and medium enterprises.
• Networking events.

Tak part at the Qubit Conference® Košice 2023 and don't miss a unique opportunity for education, presentation of your company and establishing new partnership and professional relationships on the Slovak and Czech cybersec market.

Register your participation in the event today!

The mission of Qubit Conference is to build a professional community of experts in the cybersecurity industry through networking and partnerships through highly professional educational events characterized by a professional approach and a friendly atmosphere.