Congressman Kim Holds Town Hall to Highlight Importance of Cyber Security, Safety, and Awareness

MARLTON, NJ – Yesterday, Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) held a telephone town hall where he highlighted issues related to cybersecurity safety, awareness, and internet scams. During the town hall, Congressman Kim also discussed the ongoing situation in Afghanistan and the rise in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta Variant.

“The last thing New Jersey families, seniors, and small businesses should be worried about are scams that endanger private and sensitive information,” said Congressman Kim. “I hope the information provided by our guest experts will help people across Burlington and Ocean Counties avoid scams and encouraged people who have had their identity or sensitive information stolen to reach out to our office so we can help.”

A full recording of the town hall event can be found by clicking here.

During the town hall, Congressman Kim was joined by Liz Buser, a representative from the AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, Taylor Toscano, Assistant Prosecutor from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s office, and Joseph Remy, Supervisor of the Financial Crimes Unit from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s office who discussed ways that seniors and small businesses can avoid falling prey to internet and cyber scams.

Questions raised by people in both Burlington and Ocean County during the town hall included how someone can recover from identity theft, how, when, and where they can get a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, what is being done to help evacuate those in need in Afghanistan, and what can be done to help stop both scam and spam phone and robocalls calls.

Congressman Kim highlighted his work on bipartisan bills that would help fight back against spam phone calls and internet scams. Bills like the Locking Up Robocallers Act of 2019, allows the Department of Justice to prosecute illegal robocallers.

The Congressman also highlighted two bipartisan bills Introduced In this Congress, the RING Act which requires banks to create a toll-free number for seniors to report and resolve fraud issues, and the National Guard Cybersecurity Support Act that  gives States the ability to decide how best to deploy the National Guard to respond to cyber attacks like those against our public infrastructure that we’ve seen recently.

Additionally, on April 2nd, 2020, Congressman Kim joined Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, and Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina, in cautioning against the increased potential of scams targeting people receiving COVID-19 relief payments through the CARES Act.

If you want to sign up for future Town Halls, you can do so by clicking here. 

Congressman Kim is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Small Business. More information about Congressman Kim can be found on his website by clicking here.