Review of Thought Leader in Business Award Ceremony with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

On July 20th, we were honored to present Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney with our annual Thought Leaders in Business Award.

Congresswoman Maloney was first elected to congress in 1992, and she has been the frontrunner who has pushed for a long list of progressive accomplishments. Among which is her current push for government to prioritize cybersecurity. The recent cybersecurity attacks being carried out by nation states such as North Korea and Russia have put cybersecurity at the forefront of many high level discussions – both in government and in business.

We’re thrilled that Congresswoman Maloney has been repeatedly emphasizing the importance of this discussion – and that she’s emphasized the need for it to be ongoing. After the presentation of the award, the congresswoman gave a brief talk. In her speech, she emphasized not only the government’s role in prioritizing cybersecurity, but our role as individuals, as well.

Specifically, Rep. Maloney stated that individuals in the private sector need to put more pressure on those working in the public sector to acknowledge cybersecurity as a matter of importance. When citizens show that they want to personally learn more about cybersecurity and that they hold their government accountable to use better technology, the end result will be improved ability to mitigate risk.

In her talk, Congresswoman Maloney said that cybersecurity needs to become a policy focus within all government bodies. She believes firmly that any situation where customer privacy is being compromised is one that we need to focus on and work toward improvement. Currently, the Congresswoman is working on a bill that would require all companies who deal with sensitive information to comply with data security standards that many banks already adhere to.

Because these standards are already being used in Banking, Rep. Maloney sees no reason that they couldn’t be applied to all companies that provide financial services. The standards are scalable for both small and large businesses, and they’re intended to protect customers (individuals, businesses, and governments) from hackers.

Congresswoman Maloney is absolutely correct when she says that we as a country can’t afford to be at the mercy of hackers. There must be more communication between the private and public sector so that we can move forward together as a unified front against cybersecurity threats.

It was our honor to award Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney with this year’s Thought Leader in Business Award. Watch her video here to see the full ceremony and her Q&A session.