A word of warning to roofing contractors — if the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) can be hacked, so can your business and your workers.

In mid-November, the FBI’s email servers were hacked, sending out thousands of fake messages claiming the recipients were victims of a “sophisticated chain attack.” The incident should serve as a wake-up call to contractors that they too can become victims of cyberattacks.

“It’s kind of appalling that the FBI — which you would think would be a secure organization, would have their act together — could actually allow something like that to happen, but it happened,” said Leslie Hicks, president of Cardinal Technology Solutions Inc. “That was very concerning.”

To top it off, around 250,000 new malwares are created every day, making it impossible to keep track of the latest scams. That’s why RC Publisher Jill Bloom and Editorial Director Rick Damato sat down with cyber-security experts like Hicks to update contractors on the latest cyberattack issues and what they can do to protect themselves.

Joining Hicks in our latest cyber-security episode is Bill Collins, director of national accounts at ServCo LLC, and Trent Cotney, CEO of Contey Attorneys & Consultants. Collins shares important information about what specifically contractors can do while Cotney sheds light on the liabilities and common scams contractors should defend against.

“From a legal perspective, you’ve got to understand there is significant liability there,” Cotney said. “You’ve got information both internally and externally. Internally, there’s certain information you protect that you have from your employees … externally, you may have specific information about credit cards or payment information.”

For previous cyber-security podcast episodes, visit our podcast page or find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.