March 28, 2024

Cyber security priority for Jasper County

With cyber threats always loom for government offices, Jasper County is continuing efforts to boost security and stay ahead of potential issues.

Information technology network administrator Ryan Eaton gave an update of the county’s current approach to fighting cyber threats and potential work for future preventative measures.

A recent test the department had the county participate in included sending out fishing emails to see who would click on them and who would not using the software KnowB4.

“The first round we had 16 people click on it and the second round we only had two, so we made significant progress on teaching people, think it through, who’s it from, do I really need this,” Eaton said.

The testing coincided with the department’s annual training for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This year, Eaton said they decided to address the security side of HIPAA.

“In the past few years, because of HIPAA, we have implemented things such as certain computers with HIPAA protected data lock after seven minutes if you walk away,” Eaton said. “We are also enforcing passwords to change every 90 days.”

Additional security measures include encrypting HIPAA information on any laptop that leaves county buildings, requiring the number code on all cell phones as well as having them lock after one minute and enabling all copiers to overwrite and encrypt date as well as destroy it if they copier should be sold at its end of life.

“We continue to use the same firewall company other counties use,” Eaton said. “They actually secured the Super Bowl this year, using the same equipment that we have to block out hundreds of thousands of attacks.”

Eaton said the county is using advantages of being a part of the Iowa State Association of Counties to gain licenses to protect the county further. Through ISAC, Eaton meets quarterly with the state of Iowa Chief Information Officer to discuss security and upcoming projects.

“They get grants from homeland security for security projects, so we have an in on that,” Eaton said. “When they have left over licenses, the county can use them.”

Currently, Eaton said the county is using software called Fire Eye, which work up-to-the minute to detect new viruses in malware.

“Our anti-virus stuff covers existing or known viruses and protects it, this is stuff that even the updates haven’t come out yet,” Eaton said. “If they detect it, they call us and can isolate the computer and stop traffic on it. They have caught several viruses that we didn’t know existed yet and helped us stop them. It has been a great program and it hasn’t cost us any money.”

The county has also taken precautions not allowing the public to insert USB drives and copy information from county computers and tracking hardware and software updates and changes on computers throughout the county.

Eaton said looking forward, the county is working on preventatives measures for possible ransom ware issues.

“A lot of times with ransom ware, the idea is it can get in and lock all of your files,” Eaton said. “If you have a cold copy somewhere else you can restore it back and avoid paying the ransom.”

Jasper County is looking to partner with Marion County with each entity holding a copy of the data for one another.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com