EasyIT Speaks at a Local Columbus Event on Cybersecurity and Fraud Prevention
On Tuesday, June 30, 2026, our own Kurt Hoeft joined a panel at Hylant’s Dublin office for Protecting Your Power: Fraud, Cybersecurity & Financial Protection for Women Leaders, a WomeNomic$ seminar presented with KeyBank’s Key4Women program.
The room was full of women who own, run, or lead businesses across Central Ohio, and the conversation was practical from the start. The panel brought three angles to the same problem: Kurt on the technology side as Virtual CTO at EasyIT, Erin Ressa on banking and financial protection as Key4Women Columbus Chair, and Ben King on cyber insurance and risk as Small Business Executive at Hylant.
The thread running through the whole session was simple. Cybersecurity and fraud prevention are not IT problems that get handed off to whoever manages the computers. They’re leadership responsibilities, because the person who signs the wire, approves the vendor, and holds the login is the person a scammer is targeting. That applies to a company’s accounts and personal ones, and for a lot of business owners, the line between the two is thinner than they’d like.
What Every Business Needs to Hear About the Current State of Cyber Threats in Columbus
A few of the themes that came up:
- Most fraud that hits small businesses today doesn’t start with a hack. It starts with an email, a text, or a phone call that looks routine, and the fix is as much about process as it is about software.
- Banks, IT providers, and insurers each see a different piece of the picture. When they’re talking to each other, the business owner is far better protected than when each one is working alone.
- Cyber insurance is only as good as the controls behind it. Carriers now expect things like multi-factor authentication and tested backups to be in place before a policy pays out.
- Protecting personal assets matters just as much. Executives and owners are targeted at home too, and the same habits that protect the company protect the family.
Thanks to WomeNomic$, Key4Women, and Hylant for putting the event together, and to everyone who came out and asked good questions.
If you’re a Columbus-area business leader who wants a straight answer on where your own security stands, we’re happy to talk. Reach us at (614) 339-4986 or fill out the form to the right.
