President Barack Obama is forming a commission to focus further on cyberdefense. See Reuters’ report: U.S. Government worse than all major industries on cyber fraud, Endgadet’s report, Obama forms commission to bolster U.S. cybersecurity, and Obama names former NSA Chief, Microsoft and Uber execs to cybersecurity panel.
Everyone is talking about Cybersecurity and Big Data (see our post from earlier this week in the Business Learning Institute blog, In the Big Data era, numbers tell the story.) Do you know why these issues are of utmost importance in today’s world, how they can impact you, and what you can and should do about it – what tools are available to you, and what industry best practices are?
Cybersecurity
“Cybersecurity is in the news and top of mind with executives in both the private sector and the federal government. Rightfully so,” says Jermaine Stanley, CISA, a manager in the IT Risk Advisory Practice at Dixon Hughes Goodman. “There has been a proliferation of cyberattacks across all industry segments. Executives should have the mindset that cyberattacks are not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when.”
Stanley will be speaking on a panel on cybersecurity at the MACPA’s 2016 Business and Industry Conference. The panel will provide an opportunity for cybersecurity experts to share their insights on what CFOs, controllers and other senior financial executives should be considering to protect their firms as much as possible, and how to react to a cybersecurity attack. Other panelists include John Banghart of Venable, LLP and Adam Meyer of SurfWatch Labs.
Big Data
Nancy Marc-Thrasybule, CPA, CGMA, lead technical manager of management accounting at the AICPA, talks about the value of Big Data. “Developing a data centric organization and culture is a strategic process,” says Marc-Thrasybule. “It is about driving value for the entire organization, by providing better insight into the business, enabling better strategic and smarter decisions, which will postively impact the organization’s bottom line.”
The ability to identify opportunity to cut cost, increase process efficiencies, develop more accurate preductions and analysis will strengthen organization results, she notes. Big data can be harnessed to provide greater insight into customer behaviors, even predicting their needs, and can “provide sustainable competitive advantage for organizations,” she adds.
“Management accounting and other finance professionals are strategically positioned to connect the dots, identify opportunities and ensure that analytical insights gained from Big Data are translated into commercial impact,” says Marc-Thrasybule. She is leading a panel on “From Insight to Impact: Unlocking Opportunities in Big Data” at the MACPA’s Business and Industry Conference.
Connect with your peers and gain knowledge on leading issues of the day by registering for the MACPA’s Business and Industry Conference, scheduled for May 13 at the Hilton Baltimore-BWI Airport. Register here for the live event or sign up for the webcast.