Everything was going well. at first.
Following a series of high-profile cybersecurity attacks against Australian organizations, yesterday’s online event by the Australian Board of Corporate Directors (AICD) seemed well-timed.
Approximately 4,800 people registered for the event, which focuses on the principles and best practices of “effective cybersecurity governance.”
Around 2,500 people watched and waited for the video stream to start at the scheduled start time.
But… something went wrong.
“Technical Problem” means that the Live Event did not start on time. After 5 minutes, the disgruntled audience members became irritated and began venting their frustrations in the comments.
And at that point someone posted a link in chat. To at least some attendees, it looked like another Eventbrite link where they could watch the cybersecurity discussion.
But some people who clicked on the link asked some pretty reasonable questions. Why am I asked to enter my credit card details?
Yes, IT executives and security professionals eager to attend AICD events were easily persuaded to click on links posted by random accounts.
The AICD itself popped into the chat to confirm the problem and reminded attendees not to trust links posted in the chat window.
This is wise advice in this situation, but in an exception, the same AICD account posted its own link to the chat window.
oh dear.
Thankfully, some users knew instinctively not to click on dangerous links.
AICD eventually canceled the event and later video of the event Streamable (with on-air apology for “technical issues”)
The organization statement to the mediaadvise everyone who has entered their credit card details to notify their bank.
Concerned participants are strongly encouraged to contact their financial institution as soon as possible.
“AICD sincerely apologizes for the unacceptable incident that occurred at the LinkedIn Live Event,” said Mark Rigotti, Managing Director and CEO of AICD.
