Rural Water - Quarter 2, 2017 - 31
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Protecting Your Utility from Cybercrime Assess Risks and Develop Clear Policies for all Employees BY SHERYL JACKSON l Large retailers, health insurance companies and even government agencies figure prominently in dramatic news stories about data breaches. There is no doubt that data breaches are on the rise-in fact, a record 1,093 data breaches affected U.S. companies and government agencies in 2016, a 40 percent increase from 2015.1 Because news headlines feature the largest organizations attacked by cybercriminals, smaller organizations- such as rural water and wastewater systems-may believe they are not susceptible to attacks, said Ken Keiser, global cybersecurity business development manager at Parsons. "The belief that they are obscure and too small to be a target is the greatest cybersecurity risk in the water and wastewater management utilities," he said. In reality, the greatest threat to rural utilities is not having the right procedures in place to protect a network, which can lead to an inadvertent attack, he added. Rural utilities need to pay attention to cybersecurity because a breach- intentional or inadvertent-can result in loss of control of the process or loss of control of billing information, pointed out Cliff Campbell, vice president of Frakes Engineering. An intentional attack might occur as payback by a disgruntled customer or might be initiated for financial gain, he explained. While protecting personal and financial information about employees and customers is important, not all cybercriminals are looking for personal information to sell. In fact, one of the fastest growing cybercrimes is ransomware-an attack by malware that blocks access to the computer system until a ransom is paid. In 2016, ransomware attacks increased threefold in the first three quarters of the year-with small- and medium-size businesses hit the hardest. Although one in three victims paid the ransom, 20 percent of those that paid never got their files back. 2 The most overlooked aspects of cybersecurity in rural water and wastewater utilities include: * Password management Each employee should have a distinct password that is changed on a routine basis, advised Campbell. There are too RURAL WATER 31
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