County thanks state team for cybersecurity help
County administration was complimentary of staff after what they say was a quick reaction to unauthorized activity on the county’s computer network.
According to County Administrative Officer Richard Egan during the Tuesday, Jan. 8 Lassen County Board of Supervisors meeting, just before Christmas, county employees noticed some unauthorized activity on the servers. According to Egan, so far, there is no evidence personal information was compromised.
“We had a cybersecurity incident just before Christmas and, fortunately, our staff was in place and took some actions to mitigate that intrusion and save a lot of grief,” said Egan.
As part of the aftermath process after the unauthorized activity, Egan continued, staff had a state group come in, which helped further protect the county’s data. “They came in and were a great help,” he said.
Jason Housel, Information Services Supervisor, also noted the staff’s quick response.
“Those items were what enabled us to respond to it quickly enough before we were compromised,” Housel said.
He also noted the California Cybersecurity Integration Center team, comprised of a Cal OES team, CHP, the California Department of Technology and the California Military Department, should be sending a report on the incident.
“We had a lot of very good people looking at the work we did to suppress the incident and our staff deserves a lot of credit,” said Housel.
Egan also noted the county learned how much information the network houses. He said the incident would help the county get some good recommendations on how to better see what needs to be protected and how to improve the network to future threats.
As a result of the help from the state team, the board of supervisors unanimously approved a letter to governor Gavin Newson showing the county’s appreciation for the timely response and assistance in the issue.
