Technology offers no guarantee of “absolute security” online, said Ed Stroz, GABELLI ’79, a former FBI agent and current co-president of the cybersecurity firm Stroz Friedberg LLC. He instead highlighted the human foibles that can leave computer networks and online bank accounts vulnerable.

“When you talk about people losing money, usually the root cause of that is that somebody was tricked,” he said. “If I call you and … talk you into believing that I’m from the bank and you should take the following steps, a technologist cannot fix that.”

He spoke in Manhattan on Feb. 23 as part of the Gabelli School of Business’ Flaum Leadership Lecture Series, founded by veteran business consultant and Fordham University President’s Council member Sander Flaum, who moderated the event.

The only way to completely avoid cyberthreats is to stay off the internet, Stroz said. He noted that the FBI and other “three-letter agencies” keep networks unhooked from the web if they want to ensure they won’t be hacked; to protect in-person conversations, they use secure rooms, usually windowless, where no mobile devices are allowed.

Staying off the internet isn’t an option for most of us, of course, any more than staying home all the time is a feasible way to keep from catching a cold, he said. But basic precautions can help manage the risk, he said: Don’t reuse passwords. Add more layers of authentication for your email and other online accounts. Also, he said, practice good “web hygiene” by downloading your computer’s updates when prompted—and not just for your own sake.

If hackers hijack your computer or other device to launch an attack on someone else, “you don’t want to be standing there saying, ‘Well, I didn’t think it was important to load the updates,’” he said.

While technology-related companies could be doing more to protect consumers, he said, “we all have an obligation to be good citizens, digital citizens.”

He said that cyberattacks on large retail chains in recent years got the companies’ attention because, unlike other security issues, they had a chilling effect on business. Asked about future threats, he said hackers will likely focus more on attacking data’s integrity.

“Let’s say you’re a medical organization and you have blood test results, and I change them and then I notify you and say, ‘I want this amount of money because I went in and changed the blood test results. You won’t know which ones. How much is it worth to you to get some type of satisfaction on that?’ The implications, I think, will be substantial.”

He also noted the importance of “measuring people” in a work setting, fostering a caring work environment and making sure that people who handle sensitive data can be trusted. “The insider risk is the thing that could hurt you the most,” he said

He spoke at the University Club before an audience of approximately 100 alumni, students, and friends of the Gabelli School. Asked about leadership, he said that while some are born with innate charisma that makes them natural leaders, anyone can develop leadership skills. But leadership starts with looking inward rather than outward.

“What do people see in another individual that makes them willing to follow?” he said. “You have to sort of evaluate yourself if you want to be a leader and say, ‘What am I projecting, and what does that mean?’”

U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., sat down on Monday at the University Club with Flaum, the founder of Flaum Navigators and an adjunct professor at Fordham, for a discussion ranging from Rice’s Irish-Catholic upbringing as one of 10 children in Garden City to her experiences in Congress.

While Rice, elected in 2014, is excited to be one of the 435 members of Congress, she is troubled by how politics can derail action, especially in an election year. The length of a presidential election means an entire year or more can go by without substantive action being taken on nagging issues, she said.

“We should look at the British system. They have a six- or eight-week election cycle and you have a limit as to how much you can spend.” Rice told Flaum. “Can you imagine only having to listen to Donald Trump for six to eight weeks? We’re going on almost a year now. And these election cycles for president, they’re two years in the making. It’s ridiculous.”

To combat the temptation to engage in play-it-safe politics, Rice noted that, beginning with her time as district attorney in Nassau County, she gave herself a term limit.

“I said, ‘Maybe I’ll run a couple of times, but I’m not going to be here for 30 years,’ which means that I’m going to be really aggressive,” she said.

Another method Rice has used to be productive is getting to know her political opponents. She said she makes a point of sitting with conservative Republicans with whom she disagrees and enjoying their company as people. Finding agreement with those colleagues is the key to getting things done, she said.

Rice held up criminal justice reform as an example. Republicans and Democrats both agree that reform is needed, although for different reasons. The congresswoman predicted reform of sentencing guidelines will be one of the things accomplished this year because of bipartisan support.

Despite gutter-level approval ratings for members of Congress, the job is still an honorable one, Rice said. But it should not be a lifelong job.

“I want to go back to making politics about being an avocation, not a profession,” she said.

Years ago, people left their hometowns, served for eight years and then came back home and went back to work in their previous jobs, she said. The only way people leave Washington now, Rice joked, is “either in a coffin or in handcuffs.”

The near permanent political class and voter apathy have made her a believer in term limits.

“I think if you can’t get stuff done in eight years,” Rice said, “you should hang it up.”

—John Schoonejongen

Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, held forth on everything from his biggest failure to how he maintains a work/life balance, in a conversation on Oct. 30 with Sander Flaum, CEO of Flaum Navigators.

The gathering, which was held at the Midtown headquarters of Steelcase, was part of the Fordham Graduate School of Business’ Flaum Leadership Lecture Series. Flaum is an adjunct professor in the Schools of Business.

Gorsky, who leads a corporation with 250 subsidiary companies with operations in over 57 countries in 2012, told a sold-out crowd of business students, alumni, and friends that maintaining a healthy work/life balance is key to being a great leader—for two reasons.

“The most interesting leaders I’ve ever worked for are interesting people,” he said, telling the audience that one “can’t fake it” in a high-powered job. “Who you are as a person is ultimately who you are as a leader.”

“A mistake that I made was trying to be a perfect leader, because there is no such thing, and in fact, people today want an authentic leader. They want someone they can identify with.”

Taking care of oneself physically is also critical, he said, lest one suffer from health problems after a 35-year career and be unable to enjoy retirement and family.

“There’s a lot of rubber chicken dinners, there’s a lot of long hours, and what I find is, if I don’t carve out a certain time of my day to re-energize, then I’m not as good at a time that I need to be.”

Allowing that one learns more from failure than from success, Gorsky singled out his biggest failure as his decision to leave Johnson & Johnson after 16 years in 2004.

He said he’d hit a point where he did not feel aligned with the person he was working for—a double disappointment because he’d moved his family to Europe for the job. What he eventually realized was that, like the U.S. Army where he served for six years, Johnson & Johnson is a values-based organization where one can feel they’re serving for a higher purpose.

“I also didn’t understand that . . . it’s not necessarily [a manager’s]responsibility to manage the relationship; it’s our responsibility to manage that, too.”

Gorsky rejoined Johnson & Johnson in 2008, but not first without learning a critical management lesson. During his hiatus he worked for someone who was very busy and whose English was not perfect. He was, however, a master of the “two-minute conversation.” Gorsky said he never went more than three days without getting a call from his boss, who would ask him about the most important thing he was working on and what his biggest concern was.

“What I found was, communication in a relationship is a little like a bank account. Frequent ongoing deposits over time build up a significant savings for you,” he said.

“Someday you’re going to have to go and make a big withdrawal. And if you try to go and make a big deposit before you make that withdrawal, there won’t be a lot of interest there—figuratively, and in reality.”

His advice for new MBAs? Don’t just visit abroad; live there.

“It’s waking up and being frustrated that the coffee’s not the same. It’s having to use the health care system. It’s having to try to learn the local language,” he said.

“I think it’s going to make you not only a more global executive, but a more global person. It’ll change the way you think. The way the world is interconnected today, if you don’t, you’re not going to realize your full potential.”