C Suite

Cybercriminals tend to target the most vulnerable people, making newcomers to our country and international students all the more susceptible to scams and frauds. In this episode of C Suite, Claudette explores the cyber and real-world threats to Canadian newcomers. Frauds and scams can begin as early as the immigration process, and they continue after newcomers land in Canada to start their new lives. In this episode, listeners will learn about some of the most common scams targeting newcomers to Canada like fraudulent promises of guaranteed work permits, student visas being peddled by unscrupulous immigration agencies, and even deportation threats made against students by fake Service Canada staff members. To inform the discussion, Claudette sits down with expert guests Joshua Schachnow, the Founder and CEO of Visto.ai, and Nouhaila Chelkhaoui, the founder and CEO of Scale Without Borders. She also speaks with Mrinal, an international student who was the target of a scam on his first day at the University of Windsor.

Companies big and small are now in the business of collecting a wide variety of data on everything from your favourite colour to your physical location. Data collection can ultimately serve a number of different purposes, not the least of which is improving your personal customer experience. However, having privileged access to a wealth of salient information comes with major responsibilities—are most companies ready for the challenge? In this episode featuring commentary from Alexandra Ebert, the Chief Trust Officer at Mostly AI, and Doug Merritt, the CEO of Splunk, Claudette explores some of the challenges and ethical dilemmas that have cropped up as a result of the ongoing reliance on data to improve business practices. Alexandra and Doug explain how data can help businesses improve the customer experience, personalize the sales journey, and ultimately scale up by making use of important insights gleaned from a rich data collection. They also provide examples of how data can be used incorrectly, offering tips and tricks for companies hoping to maximize their use of data in the future.

Ethical hackers are IT professionals who simulate hacking situations within an organization in order to identify blind spots and potential threats, to ultimately protect against cyber attacks. Many large organizations and financial institutions regularly engage in ethical hacking practices to gain insight into vulnerabilities and avoid potential data breaches. On this episode of C Suite, Zane leads us through a step-by-step simulated hack of one of our show producers, Steph. The demonstration reveals some of the cybersecurity blind spots many of us may be missing, and what a hacker can do once they gain access to your network. Zane shares the inner workings of a malware attack or email phishing scheme, what can make you an easy target, and tips for how we can all protect our devices from a similar breach.

Business email compromise is one of the largest cyber threats facing organizations and individuals today. A recent FBI report revealed that business email compromise scams resulted in over $1.8 billion worth of losses to businesses in 2020 alone. On this episode, we meet Des: a management consultant who experienced a business email compromise scam first-hand. He transferred a large sum of money as per his boss’ email request, only to find out the email was not from his boss. How could Des have mitigated this attack? We talk with industry experts like Kelly from TD and Patrick Peterson, CEO and co-founder of email threat prevention firm Agari, to find out how business email compromise works and what companies can do to catch it and prevent it.

Every year, the number of kids online increases. But, as one study found, over 1.5 billion young people are impacted by school closures due to COVID-19. This means there are more kids online today than ever before, and cybercriminals are taking notice. On this episode, we’re asking the two most important questions parents need to know: what are the greatest risks to kids online and how do we mitigate them? To find out, we speak to a focus group of kids ages 11 to 17 to learn what exactly they’re doing online. We also sit down with Cory, a former FBI supervisor, to explore the risks of exploitation and fraud for kids on the internet, and Matt McGowan, Director & General Manager of Snap Inc. Canada, to discover what Snapchat is doing to keep kids safe on their app.