The topic of cybersecurity was front and center during an informative panel discussion at ASA’s inaugural Innovation Summit this week in Rosemont, Illinois.

ASA-member distributors, suppliers, reps and service providers heard from Winsupply’s Senior VP of IT Chris Schrameck, Texas Plumbing Supply Vice President Jeremy Fuller, NIBCO Information Security Supervisor Travis Slone and Coburn Supply Executive Vice President Michael Maloney on a host of cybersecurity issues during a 90-minute panel session moderated by Distribution Strategy Group’s Ian Heller.

Panelists talked about real-world cybersecurity issues such as ransomware, phishing and email spamming, as well as ways to help protect industry companies from these increasing cyber threats.

Heller shared some staggering cyber-attack statistics, including 48% of cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees, while 61% of small businesses were the target of cyberattacks in the last three years.

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The ASA Innovation Summit packed education, best practices sharing and networking into a day-and-a-half program. Keynote speaker Jeremy Gutsche talked about tactics for disruptive thinking, and also conducted a scenario thinking workshop.

Other speakers included Breakthrough Innovation Advisors Managing Director Bruce Vojak, who talked about the value of innovation, specifically identifying strategic options being pursued to maturity, evaluating capabilities to renew a business and determining whether/to what extent to pursue innovation.

The FutureWork Institute President and CEO Margaret Regan took attendees on a visual journey into the digital future to experience how technology will change distribution, logistics and world over the next 10 years.

Attendees were able to interact and network throughout the conference with Innovation Summit sponsors ATS Software, Blue Ridge, Canals AI, Inriver, Repfabric, Sparx IQ, Trimble and Xngage.