Safeguarding the future of finance

By Kevin Manne

Cybersecurity is vital for organizations to maintain the integrity of their financial data and meet regulatory requirements, and this spring, the University at Buffalo School of Management hosted Dave Burg, cybersecurity leader at EY Americas, for a free lecture.

Financial markets and investors continue to view cybersecurity as critical to the integrity of business processes and the underlying financial information, making Burg’s lecture particularly timely for accounting students and professionals.

Presented by the school’s Helen and Oscar Sufrin Lectureship in Accounting, Burg’s talk was titled “Cybersecurity Issues and Implications for Financial Reporting.” Throughout the evening, he introduced the building blocks to protect against cybersecurity threats, and discussed the evolving landscape for cybersecurity, the implications of cybersecurity in financial reporting, and the proposed enhanced cybersecurity disclosure requirements.

“Technology is constantly developing, so as professionals we need to be able to understand how to keep data secure to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring,” says Kelsey Sullivan, BS ’22, MS ’23, incoming associate at EY. “Burg helped me understand the implications of a cyberattack or data breach and how to incorporate the proper controls to prevent these attacks from happening, and how important that is for professionals working in the accounting field.”

Burg is an expert on practical issues related to cybersecurity. In his role at EY, one of the Big Four accounting firms, he assists clients in reactive and proactive consulting capacities involving the deployment of information technology solutions and their use. 

He regularly contributes to, and has been quoted in, a variety of business and industry journals, and is passionate about presenting on a wide range of topics at global corporations, law firms, industry events and government agencies, and has lectured at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Georgetown University and Penn State University. 

The Helen and Oscar Sufrin Lectureship in Accounting brings distinguished business professionals to the UB School of Management to speak about accounting issues. Funding is provided through the generous support of Leslie Sufrin, CPA, and Gerald Sufrin, MD, a longtime UB professor, in honor of their late parents.