During the Wyoming Cybersecurity Symposium, Wednesday, October 23rd, Cybersecurity Business Counselors (CBC) Alexandra Farkas and Justin Gorman discussed the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce's cyber counselor service with the business community. Both are the first to receive this designation in the United States by Made Safe.
As part of a Microsoft TechSpark Grant awarded on March 7, the Chamber and CyberWyoming teamed up to train local, business-minded human resources to respond to the need for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) project.
Farkas and Gorman shared the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce is focused on providing the business community with tools and resources to help local businesses grow and stay safe - one of these resources is a newly launched Accreditation Program specific for businesses.
The Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce is a 5 star accredited Chamber of Commerce, one of only 116 across the nation. This was awarded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is made specifically for Chambers. In result, the Chamber found the process so useful at furthering the organization, a program was forged for businesses.
There were four areas of accreditation that the Chamber had to pass: Advocacy, Civic Trusteeship, Sustainability, and Workforce Culture and now offers Cybersecurity. The partnership was formed between the Chamber and CyberWyoming to secure the Microsoft grant.
Cybersecurity was made a priority because of the work that will be make available by the government. Cybersecurity is a requirement to be an approved vendor and projects for the military will require that businesses have these best practices in place. The Chamber shared that the cybersecurity category allows for the organization to actively deploy their resources to protect local businesses.
They mentioned that in addition to responding to GBSD, the Chamber wants to prioritize small businesses as well. 60% of small businesses that are victims of a cyber-attack go out of business within six months and 43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses. In a community where small business is very prevalent, your Chamber is working to monitor these threats, stay ahead of these trends, and protect your organization.
As a Chamber of Commerce it is our mission to serve, promote, and protect our members. We are here for you!