Trustees briefed on cyber security
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DUBLIN — Bladen Community College trustees were educated about cyber security Thursday night, as heightened awareness of concerns has come about.
Jay Stanley, vice president for Finance and Administration, reminded trustees about a cyber security incident at Richmond Community College in July 2019.
“It was a day that they were closed, and their information technology department received information that about 50-some servers all went down simultaneously,” he said. “Their college was down.”
Their business system was up, but could not be accessed.
Stanley said the college has multiple safeguards to keep that from happening, using advice from the community college system office.
“There are all kinds of things that we need to be doing and we will be doing,” he said. “Our technology director has this huge list of items that he wants to do, and it’s a matter of getting there. We are doing well.”
Stalney said one contributor to the problem at Richmond Community College was an out of date antivirus detection system.
“That was one of the first things we did after it happened,” he said of checking each computer on campus.
In addition to that everyone was given training, with emails for example, and demonstrations on what should not be opened. The training allowed the IT department to figure out who needed more training.
When the attack occurred the National Guard was involved, as well as federal and state investigative agencies. Board members also asked if they could have the opportunity to gain this training, and Stanley said it was a matter of setting it up with an email address.
“We are learning a lot, and there are more things we need to do,” he said.
Emily M. Williams can be reached at 910-247-9133 or ewilliams@bladenjournal.com.
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