Kris Richey Curtis visited the U.S. Open Chambers Bay on Monday with her fellow Seattle Chamber Board members. They were invited to visit the IBM hospitality tent to learn about cyber security from a panel of experts from Stanford and IBM.

Businesses should of course be concerned about their vulnerability to high-level cyber-attacks and data protection, but also the more immediate vulnerability that comes from common events like employees leaving, lost laptops, and careless behavior by users inside and outside of work. How strong are your passwords? Are you using cloud apps with the appropriate amount of caution? And taking into consideration our own corporate clients, what about the bigger picture like building security and IT assets in your office space? Do you know what systems are in place? Have you discussed best practices with your building security team and IT contractors?

The take-away: be active in protecting your business! Educate your employees, and educate yourself. If you do experience a breach, never let a catastrophe go to waste. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn, to inform, and support funding increases for better security.

(Oh! And there were people playing golf too…)