The Security Series with Thomas P. Vartanian
Presented by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Tuesdays, Feb. 3-Feb. 17, 2-3:30 pm
Sarasota Art Museum, Ringling College Museum Campus, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
$60 (plus $25 OLLI membership required)| 941-309-5111 • olliringlingcollege.org
Feb. 3: Financial Security — Understanding Money, Banking and Cryptocurrency and How to Use Them
It gets harder each day to understand how money, markets, and technology affect us. It is even harder to understand what we should be doing to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, many spend too little time on financial literacy even though every moment of the day is filled with financial decisions, even as routine as deciding whether to use a credit card, debit card, cash, or Bitcoin. As markets gets more sophisticated and derivative and tokenized securities begin to proliferate, it is critical that we stay up to date so that we can rely less on third parties and more on our own instincts. This lecture will focus on that challenge and provide some rules of the road to help you protect yourself.
Feb. 10: Online Security — Understanding Cyber Threats and How to Avoid Them
Almost every day, we read about new malware, viruses, ransomware, phishing, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), social engineering schemes, spoofing, and zero-day exploits. And yet we have no choice but to live in cyberspace for much of what we do each day. Most of us don’t understand how to protect ourselves online, what the risks are, what we should do if we are hacked, or who we call if our money disappears one day, as it did for 20,000 customers at Bank of America in 2025. The issues are complex, and the solutions aren’t always convenient, but they exist, and you should know what they are. This lecture will explain the challenges and the tools you have to deal with them.
Feb. 17: Future Security — Understanding How Technology Will Impact Your Future and that of Your Children and Grandchildren
Much of what we do each day and many of the decisions we make are driven by our expectations about what the future will look like. But never before in the history of civilization has the future been so hard to predict. With new AI, Quantum Computing, Gene Editing, and similar technological advances seemingly occurring every day, understanding the future we and our children and grandchildren will have to deal with is not so easy as it once was. What the future looks like affects the financial, social, medical, insurance, and job-related decisions we have to make today. This lecture will describe the possible worlds that we, our children, and grandchildren will have to negotiate and how they may benefit or disadvantage us.