Rural hospitals and local governments often vulnerable to hackers, but can take easy steps to protect themselves - Entrepreneur Generations

Small town governments are increasingly getting hit with cyberattacks in which hackers get into local government computer systems, encrypt the data, and then demand a ransom to unlock it. Rural county governments often have older systems and less tech-savvy workers, so hackers frequently see them as easier targets. Rural hospitals and clinics are considered highly vulnerable to cyberattacks, Brian Tumulty reports for The Bond Buyer.

There were at least 113 successful ransomware attacks on state and local governments in 2019, Jenni Bergal reports for internet technology publication GCN. One of them was Lake City, Florida, pop. 12,046. Hackers locked the city government's computers for several weeks last June and demanded $750,000 in bitcoin to unlock it. The city tried to recover the data on its own, but failed. Its insurance company negotiated with the hackers and got the ransom down to $470,000, Bergal reports. The city paid the insurance company its $10,000 deductible and the insurance company paid the hackers $470,000.

But small county governments can take easy steps to improve their cybersecurity. "Cybersecurity experts shared tips on how local governments could apply the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity framework to their networks on Friday at a panel discussion at the National Association of Counties legislative conference in Washington, D.C.," Andrea Noble reports for Route Fifty.

The NIST framework is a voluntary guide for businesses, organizations and governments to better protect infrastructure and manage cybersecurity risks. It includes easy-to-implement tenets such as using secure passwords and training staff to look out for possible phishing schemes, Noble reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2ImbGKe Rural hospitals and local governments often vulnerable to hackers, but can take easy steps to protect themselves - Entrepreneur Generations

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