City Blocks Email Account of Alderman Who Refuses Cybersecurity Training

Officials in the Tennessee city of Germantown have restricted the email account of an alderman who refuses to undergo cybersecurity training. 

Insurance specialist and married father of one Dean Massey was elected to the position of alderman in 2016. His official [email protected] email account was restricted earlier this month after Massey failed to complete a cybersecurity training course.

According to the Commercial Appeal website, all Germantown officials and city employees were asked to complete the 45-minute course by a specific date and were warned that failure to comply would result in their email access being restricted. However, Massey told Infosecurity Magazine that "there was no policy that mandated the cyber-training for elected officials."

Explaining why he refused to complete the cybersecurity training after being instructed to do so by the city's IT director, Massey said: "I was not aware of any alderman having to take the cyber-training in the past, so I thought it was unusual for a city employee to suddenly claim the authority to demand that elected officials click a link to take the training this year. 

"I simply disregarded the emails with the training links until I received a notice from the IT director advising me that he intended to restrict my government email account."

Massey responded to the imposed restriction by setting up a personal email account—[email protected]—to handle his official city business. Conducting public business from a personal email address does not violate any Tennessee state laws or ethics guidelines. 

Massey's refusal comes in the ..

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