Protect the Nest webinar: “Means, Motive, and Machine: Cybercrime in the AI Era,” October 29

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which makes it a great time to take a step back and look at how cybercrime continues to evolve. The technology behind many of today's attacks is changing quickly, but the goal remains the same: convince people to trust something they shouldn't. Fake job offers, fraudulent invoices, account verification requests, gift card scams, and impersonation attempts all have one thing in common. They are designed to get someone to act before they stop and think.

This month's Protect the Nest webinar, featuring guest speaker Dr. Christopher Brewer, takes a closer look at how cybercrime is evolving in a world where powerful technology is becoming more accessible to everyone, including bad actors. Today's attackers can use artificial intelligence to create more convincing phishing campaigns, impersonate trusted individuals, generate realistic content, and scale their operations faster than ever before. While the tools may be changing, the underlying goal remains the same: gaining access to information, accounts, money, or university resources.

During this session, we'll explore how these threats are developing, why they are becoming more difficult to recognize, and what those changes mean for the Illinois State University community.

Join us for this webinar on:

• Thursday, October 29, 2026
• 1 p.m.

We invite the Redbird community to join the Protect the Nest team and Dr. Brewer as we explore today's cyber threat landscape and share practical ways to stay safe.

By working together and remaining vigilant, we can help protect ourselves, our colleagues, and Illinois State University.