ATOM briefs local officials on cybersecurity
By Caleb Symons Sentinel Staff
Cheshire County held a cybersecurity briefing for local officials Thursday, just weeks after the town of Peterborough announced it had lost $2.3 million in an email scam earlier this summer.
That attack prompted county officials to make cybersecurity the topic of Thursday’s virtual session in an effort to prevent similar incidents, according to County Administrator Christopher Coates.
“We felt it was important to have a discussion,” Coates told attendees, who included representatives from several area towns as well as state lawmakers from the region. The county has held informational sessions for local officials on a variety of topics during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Local officials heard Thursday from a trio of cybersecurity experts: Cori Casey, a risk management consultant at NH Primex, the insurance firm that Peterborough has asked to cover its losses; Timothy Benitez, an agent with the U.S. Secret Service, which is investigating that scam; and Jason Sgro, senior partner and chief strategist for the Portsmouth cybersecurity firm ATOM Group.
Since small communities typically have few employees with little cyber knowledge managing a substantial budget, Sgro said they’re frequently targeted in cyberattacks.
“You’re housing high-value targets with a relatively low level of defense,” he said. “That makes us prime targets here.”
In addition to using a secure email domain and multi-factor authentication, Sgro urged local officials to provide cybersecurity training for town employees and to develop a response plan in case of an attack. Each successful attack, he warned, encourages scammers to perpetrate more of them.
