What would your business do if a cyberattack happened tomorrow?
That question was at the heart of the North Vancouver Chamber’s From Risk to Resilience: Practical Cybersecurity Strategies for Business Leaders event on Sept. 17, presented in partnership with Invest Vancouver.
Hosted at the DoubleTree by Hilton North Vancouver, the event brought together local business leaders to explore practical ways to identify cyber risks, protect sensitive information and build stronger cybersecurity practices into day-to-day operations.
Cybersecurity is a business issue
North Vancouver Chamber CEO Jonathan Mosley noted that virtually every business now relies on digital infrastructure — from websites and e-commerce to cloud storage and digital communications.
“With every business now being digital, it is imperative there is a cybersecurity risk management strategy in place to protect customer privacy, safeguard online transactions, and avoid increasingly sophisticated hacking and fraud,” Mosley said.
But the goal of the morning wasn’t to scare business owners. It was to make cybersecurity more approachable.
“The point today, however, is not to scare you but rather to have a thoughtful discussion, in layman’s terms, about what cybersecurity risk management can be,” Mosley said.
That meant looking beyond technology to the practical decisions business owners and managers can make to better understand their risks and determine where they may need outside expertise.
Katie Fitzmaurice, Executive Vice President at Invest Vancouver, opened the discussion by putting cybersecurity into a broader regional context.
She pointed to the region’s concentration of critical infrastructure, including YVR, the Port, the border and hospitals, alongside its large number of small and medium-sized businesses.
“SMEs present a ton of risk. This is really, really interesting for hackers,” Fitzmaurice said.
At the same time, she highlighted the depth of cybersecurity expertise in the region and the willingness of industry leaders to help smaller businesses navigate the challenges.
Lessons from local businesses
Mosley then moderated a discussion with three local business leaders:
- Sohail Kamal, CEO, North Shore Sports Medicine
- Jennifer Bednard, Partner, Lakes Whyte LLP
- Mike Webber, Director of Operations, Better Business Bureau Serving Mainland BC & the Yukon
Their experiences illustrated that cybersecurity looks different depending on the business — but many of the underlying principles are the same.
For Kamal, the transition from paper-based patient records to electronic and cloud-based systems has fundamentally changed how North Shore Sports Medicine manages information. The organization has implemented measures including two-factor authentication and is continuing to review its technology infrastructure.
For Bednard, the legal profession’s requirements around confidential client information add another layer of consideration. She discussed the importance of understanding where data is stored, particularly when using cloud services and AI tools.
“If you are putting it into a query or an AI model, is it training that model? Is it being used for other purposes?” Mosley asked, highlighting questions that businesses should consider before entering sensitive information into AI systems.
Bednard also discussed what happens when a breach occurs, including the importance of having a response plan and understanding the potential role of cyber insurance.
Don’t overlook the human element
One of the clearest themes from the discussion was that cybersecurity isn’t something that can simply be handed off to an IT provider and forgotten.
Webber emphasized the importance of creating processes that help employees recognize suspicious requests and verify information before acting on it.
At the Better Business Bureau, for example, staff are trained to verify requests that involve sensitive business information rather than automatically acting on an unfamiliar email.
“Cybersecurity is an ongoing thing that we have to constantly be thinking about and talking about and taking action on,” Webber said.
That ongoing communication can be one of the simplest tools available to a business.
Bednard emphasized the importance of creating a workplace culture where employees feel comfortable questioning unusual requests — including requests that appear to come from senior leaders.
“If you have a culture of never questioning the CEO, of course somebody is going to jump on that CEO’s email to do whatever is said,” she said.
Her advice: identify the vulnerable points in your business and create a culture where people feel safe speaking up when something doesn’t look right.
Start with the basics — and keep reviewing them
The panel discussion also reinforced that cybersecurity doesn’t necessarily have to begin with an expensive or complicated technology overhaul.
The speakers discussed practical measures such as:
- Using two-factor or multifactor authentication
- Establishing strong password policies
- Verifying payment and banking requests through a separate channel
- Training employees to recognize suspicious messages and requests
- Understanding where sensitive business and customer data is stored
- Reviewing cybersecurity policies and infrastructure regularly
- Talking with your IT provider about where your business is most vulnerable
- Having a plan for responding to a data breach
As Mosley summarized during the discussion, businesses need regular communication, up-to-date policies, and simple verification practices that bring the human element back into cybersecurity.
The event reinforced one message above all: cybersecurity isn’t a one-time project. Threats evolve, technology changes and businesses need to keep reviewing how they protect their people, information and operations.
The North Vancouver Chamber will continue sharing cybersecurity resources and practical tools to help local businesses better understand and manage cyber risk.
Thank you to our Presenting Sponsor, Invest Vancouver, for supporting this important conversation, and to our Venue Sponsor, DoubleTree by Hilton North Vancouver, for hosting us. We also thank our panelists — Sohail Kamal, Jennifer Bednard and Mike Webber — for sharing their experiences and practical advice.
Leanne Terrace, founder of AI Leveraged Leader, also joined the event to share her newly launched book, Built to Think.
