O’Fallon, IL, February 24, 2018 – Alpine Security (“Alpine”) exhibited and presented at the 2018 Conference on Enterprise Excellence on February 22, 2018, held at Hamburger University in Oak Brook, IL. The Conference on Enterprise Excellence featured recognized organizational leaders sharing how they created their competitive future through process improvement and benchmarking against high-performing organizations. The conference also highlighted best practices, strategies, and inspiration for all individuals seeking improvement. This one-day conference featured recognized leaders, from a variety of industries, who have led their teams and organizations to high performance in the areas of leadership, strategy, customer engagement, operations, workforce, and technology.

Alpine Security exhibited at the conference and discussed cybersecurity risk management with an emphasis on the Baldridge Cybersecurity Initiative. The Baldridge Cybersecurity Initiative includes a cybersecurity self-assessment, which helps organizations with the following topics:

• determine cybersecurity-related activities that are important to your business strategy and critical service delivery

• prioritize your investments in managing cybersecurity risk

• determine how best to enable your workforce, customers, suppliers, partners, and collaborators to be risk conscious and security aware, and to fulfill their cybersecurity roles and responsibilities

• assess the effectiveness and efficiency of your use of cybersecurity standards, guidelines, and practices

• assess the cybersecurity results you achieve

• identify strengths to leverage and priorities for improvement

Alpine’s CEO,  Christian Espinosa, presented at the conference on cybersecurity breach prevention – “Effective Tactics Used by Hackers & How to Avoid Being the Next Cyber Victim.” Here’s the description of the presentation:

“Cybersecurity breaches are on the rise, despite best efforts to prevent attacks. What are the top tactics cybercriminals and hackers use to break into an organization? What simple actions can you take now to prevent becoming the next victim of a cyber attack?”

Slides from the presentation can be found HERE.

About IMEC and ILPEx

IMEC is a unique organization driven by the mission of two U.S. Department of Commerce NIST programs founded to support U.S. businesses: the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). The ILPEx Recognition Program was founded in 1994 as the state’s affiliate to the Baldrige Program. IMEC was established in 1996 to improve the productivity and competitiveness of Illinois’ small and mid-sized manufacturing firms. Through the ILPEx Recognition program, IMEC leverages the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a foundation for driving organizational improvement and then prioritizes those improvements through a range of hands-on, goal-oriented solutions in continuous improvement, strategy, workforce, and more. The 2015 merger allowed the organization to positively impact business change for Illinois companies and recognize those companies who achieve elements of business excellence.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework helps you evaluate performance, assess where improvements or innovation are most needed, and get results in the following management areas:

• Leadership

• Strategy

• Customer Engagement

• Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management

• Workforce

• Operations

• Results

IMEC provides state-wide education based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework, and shares best-in-class strategies for improving organizational practices.

About Alpine Security

Alpine Security is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) providing cybersecurity assessment services including penetration testing, risk assessments, incident response, audits, and digital forensics. Alpine Security also provides cybersecurity certification hands-on technical training. We believe it is better to have an ally determine your weaknesses than the enemy. We are based in the Greater St. Louis area and add value to clients worldwide.

About Christian Espinosa

Christian, hanging out with Ronald, at Hamburger University during the Conference on Enterprise Excellence

Christian Espinosa is the CEO and Founder of Alpine Security and a Cybersecurity Professor at Maryville University. He has worked as a Network & Systems Engineer, a White Hat Hacker, a Trainer, a Consultant, and an Entrepreneur in the cybersecurity industry since 1993.  He has held over 20 industry certifications, including the CISSP, CISA, LPT, ECSA, PMP, CCSP, etc.  He is a veteran of the United States Air Force and holds a BS in Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) and an MBA in Computer and Information Management from Webster University. He also holds multiple patents on cybersecurity attack and defense simulation. Some of the major recent projects Christian has worked on include penetration testing and security assessments of commercial and military aircraft, medical device penetration testing, and numerous incident response projects. When Christian isn’t protecting us from cybercriminals, he climbs mountains, travels the world, teaches outdoor wilderness survival, and races ultramarathons and Ironman triathlons.