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SPOTLIGHT: Cybersecurity

CYBERSECURITY BEST PRACTICES

FOR SMART BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES

CHARLES MEYERS
SVP & Chief Technical Architect,
Corporate Property Group
Wells Fargo

BACK IN 1998, as I was transitioning into a new oppor- my computer would cost me untold recovery hours and
tunity, something occurred that has never left me. I was personal anguish, all due to that click. It was early on tech-
moving to a consulting services organization that would nology-wise so I didn’t have the huge digital footprint that
require me to stretch my skills, and I was excited. I have now; it was devastating, nonetheless. Ask anyone
who has experienced a virus, identity fraud or ransomware,
Early on at my new job I received a personal email and they will recount a similar tale of woe.
from a colleague—what I presumed to be a forwarded
joke. He worked in finance at my previous company While the initial impact is distressing, the sense of loss
and was well connected to our industry. While he and becomes increasingly acute, growing into revulsion as the
I had worked together on projects, I wouldn’t say that sense of personal violation really sets in. I was attacked. That
we were close personally. I knew that he could connect click would haunt me for some time as I struggled to clean
me to many potential clients, so when I glanced at the up the mess. A simple click … and I knew better. Obviously,
subject line it was barely a split second thought, “Huh, I haven’t forgotten the lesson, and whenever I read or hear
that’s strange.” Then I clicked.... Strange didn’t begin to about a new phishing attack, I think back to my first malware
describe what happened next. incident. All it takes is a click. Let’s fast forward to today.

Let’s go back to that split second—my inner voice was I have described at previous CRE industry events and
there in that moment, I just didn’t listen. I knew this in webinars that we at Wells Fargo started a dedicated
individual to be very conservative, he worked in finance building technology cybersecurity program in 2014. We
crunching numbers for our corporate investors. Why expanded our focus and remediation to include both
would he send me a joke? I was soon to find out it traditional IT assets (PCs, servers, routers), as well as
was anything but a joke. The virus that spread through Operation Technology (OT) assets. OT assets include

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