Preferred Data extends cybersecurity and AI to Burke County

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries, a Morganton native works to make sure local businesses aren’t left behind or subjected to cyberattacks in its wake.

Here in Burke County, Preferred Data Corporation (PDC) is putting that capability in the hands of the businesses across the area.

“Every single business is vulnerable,” said Morganton resident and PDC President Josh Girón, who purchased the company in April 2025 after years of developing his skills in the industry. “From Fortune 500 businesses all the way down to your Main Street businesses.”

While AI increases efficiency on the front end, it also lowers the bar for cybercriminals.

“Any average Joe can now become a very proficient attacker — they can attack any business with AI,” Girón said. “Basically, all the knowledge that I’ve attained over the 15 (to) 20 years I’ve been in the industry can be done now with an AI agent.”

Essentially, bad actors use AI to expedite the process of identifying weaknesses in a business’s security by telling the agent the business is theirs and to act as a “white hat hacker,” or someone who attempts to hack a computer system legally to find security flaws.

Once the AI combs through the system, the hacker exploits the missing protections. That’s where PDC comes in.

Girón explained that nearly every week, one of their clients is affected by a cyberattack. Whether it’s a phishing email — an email with a malicious link inside — or a fake website that requests permissions to access confidential data, PDC automatically scans client software and hardware, enacting autoresponses at signs of ill intent.

“Our system automatically detected it, logged them out, disabled their login, and did all that,” Girón said. “The most important thing is email security for your employees.”

WHAT PDC OFFERS

PDC’s roots first took hold in 1987 in High Point, North Carolina, with branches eventually extending across the state.

Girón, a Morganton native who returned to his hometown after 16 years in Raleigh, intends to bring that tech expertise to Burke County, making cybersecurity and AI tools available to businesses of every size.

Girón believes that businesses that aren’t at least experimenting with AI may be left behind as the speed at which the technology works continues to pick up pace.

“(A task) a year ago would take us three days to do that full loop, now we do it in three minutes,” Girón explained, comparing people to AI as gears in a machine. “The slow gear — that’s nice and confident — but when you have the little gears going really fast and can beat you 100 times a day, you’re going to be left behind.”

As a company, PDC offers everything from security to IT services, and Girón explained that, although they also work with major companies, they treat every client with the same level of importance.

“If you went to a surgeon or a dentist or a lawyer, they would know their profession very well,” Girón said. “That’s basically what we do, but for small businesses. We come in and provide these managed IT, managed cybersecurity, and managed AI services. We can triage and diagnose what they have and say, ‘Hey, you’re deficient in this. You need to do this.’ Kind of like when you go to a lawyer and they give you their advice.”

If a business has network failure, IT problems, new equipment, AI concerns, cybersecurity, or operating system needs, PDC acts as a one-stop shop for bolstering their technological infrastructure.

Due to the centralization of furniture manufacturers in High Point, many of the company’s longest-tenured customers are from that industry and have remained clients for more than two decades.

For Girón, his return to Morganton not only brought him closer to family but also allowed him to expand PDC’s services to the local businesses he was familiar with as a teenager at Patton and Freedom high schools.

“My mom worked in the furniture side here, since the ’90s,” he explained. “It was also that feel-good (situation). Some of these businesses that are out here — Bernhardt, Valdese Weavers, all these that I personally know because my mom has worked at these places. I think that would be a good way to grow.”