Tuesday’s Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting started to sound a little like a speech from the film “Independence Day.”
“Today we face advanced attackers that are constantly finding new ways to invade our network,” staff said.
But rather than invaders from outer space, the county is working on its resilience to attackers from cyberspace, naming October Cybersecurity Awareness Month in Solano County. Unlike in the past, basic firewalls are not enough to stop attackers, and the county needs to be more vigilant.
“Cybersecurity is a commitment that requires focus, adaptability and continued improvement,” county Registrar of Voters Tim Flannagan said.
While emerging cyber threats may sound like science fiction, they are no longer, staff said. A computer, sitting quietly, could suddenly ramp up in activity and show a mouse moving without anyone touching it. Supervisor Wanda Williams likened the threats to something out of the film “I, Robot.”
The largest change in the cybersecurity landscape is the emergence of widely available quality Generative AI, staff told the board. While AI creates opportunities for efficiency for the country, it also presents emergent threats in the form of deep fakes and automated hacking.
“This is an ongoing challenge that humanity will have to face for some time now,” staff said.
Internal cybersecurity training has been effective, staff said, as they have found internal phishing stings have gone from a 7.2 percent hit rate last year to 1.5 percent this year. Annual training and testing makes it more difficult for hackers to get through the county’s defenses, staff said.
Mario Garcia, a representative from the federal agency CISA, which handles cybersecurity, said his organization works with the county, the state, The FBI and other federal agencies to strengthen systems in their resilience toward cybercrime. Organizations, both governmental and otherwise, should use two-factor authentication and strong passwords, he said, as other communities in the region have already fallen victim to such crimes.
“CISA prides itself on not naming and shaming other communities,” he said, “but a quick Google search and you can see some of your fellow Northern California communities that have been hit with these attacks, even in the last year.”
Garcia noted that cyber attacks can be prevented, but also should be planned for, so that organizations know what to do if they cannot access their systems
“Just like any other disaster, there should be drills and rehearsals and plans put in place,” said Garcia.
Supervisor Mitch Mashburn asked if AI computing would need more space and funding from the county, but staff indicated that much of that process can happen in the cloud.
“I’m just a simple country boy, right, but if our computers aren’t working how are we going to get to the cloud to fix our computers?” Mashburn asked.
Flannagan replied that this was a valid concern, but that the county would build redundancies to avoid an outcome where they cannot reach the cloud.
“There are risks to have it here, there are risks to have it in the cloud,” he said.
