Just think of him as “your cop friend, Dave.”
That’s the introduction a room full of Goleta-area business advocates got recently from Dave Valadez, a community resource deputy with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department who specializes in providing “active shooter” response training to local employees.
More than that, the nine-year department veteran hopes to establish relationships with local businesses so when they have a question — from the mundane to germane — they’ll know who to call.
“I will work with you, whatever you need,” Valadez said, noting his services were provided free of charge. “I hope you guys can spread the word, too.”
Valadez kicked off a Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce Issue and Policy Roundtable discussion on business safety at Glen Annie Golf Club.
“Unfortunately, in our complex society, we are aware of the fact that it’s possible for there to be physical threats for businesses,” said Peter Brown, office managing partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and chairman of the chamber roundtable.
Cyber threats also dominated the discussion.
Although the subjects were a bit depressing, business leaders acknowledged the need to be prepared for anything.
Valadez said he offers free two-hour training programs tailored to a business’ needs, giving the trainings as far north as Santa Maria and to businesses ranging in size from four employees to large corporations.
“We’ve had a history in this area with three mass-murderer events,” he said.
He noted the 2006 Goleta postal facility shooting, the 2014 Isla Vista massacre and a quadruple homicide later that year when a Goleta man, Nicolas Holzer, allegedly killed his family.
Valadez said the “barricade in place” or lock-down response was no longer recommended for the workplace, and he advocated instead for a “run, hide, fight” approach to be in line with OSHA requirements for a safe work environment.
Montecito Bank & Trust employees highlighted ways that businesses can protect operations, employees and clients from cyber security threats, especially when emails have been hacked.
Laurel Sykes, the bank’s chief risk officer, passed out information packets while explaining the uptick in fraud Montecito Bank & Trust has been seeing since February 2015.
She said nonprofit organizations and manufacturing companies in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are seeing more CEO wire fraud, which involves someone sending a fraudulent email from a company CEO’s email address — or one that looks similar to it — asking bankers or company employees to request a money wire transfer.
Real estate and construction companies and religious organizations have also been targets, she said.
“Not to scare you, but it really is happening,” Sykes said. “It’s really a big deal.”
Because bank associates are trained to see red flags — a slightly modified email address, multiple emails sent on the same day with the same request with phrases like “I’m away from my desk in a meeting,” etc. — the community bank stopped seven such cases in 2015 alone, totaling $700,000, Sykes said.
She warned businesses to establish IT departments and to have at least two- or three-tier systems in place to approve wire transfers.
Paul Abramson, Montecito Bank & Trust’s senior vice president and director of technology, also warned against opening documents via email because malware could be delivered through a Word document.
He recommended that companies use a secure file-sharing system and that employees come up with at least three different passwords of varying strength level for websites and services.
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.