(TNS) — Decatur Information Technology Director Brad Philips said the city allocates a lot money and energy to fight cyberattacks like the recent one on the city of Florence, but he’ll never feel confident that Decatur is fully protected.
Florence is paying nearly $300,000 in bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency, as ransom to a group who hacked into the city's network security system in late May.
The Florence City Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday, where council members angrily and grudgingly but unanimously approved paying the money. They said they did so to preserve information about city workers, customers and the public.
“Ransom has been a problem for some time, and I won’t stop worrying until I retire,” Phillips said.
Phillips said he’s always looking at security options and studying the latest trends in security software and cyberthreats, but things change quickly. He also holds training for city employees and sends test emails to them. If they open one, they have to attend training, he said.
“We can make our data confidential with the integrity that we can trust the data,” Phillips said. “The problem comes when you make it accessible to people, which you have to do to use it."
For example, Phillips said someone can put information in a box and lock the box “so you know it’s safe. But it does you no good if you can't get in the box to reach the information.”
His department has a budget of almost $3.5 million annually, but Phillips couldn’t say how much is spent on cybersecurity.
“The good thing is the mayor and council recognize it’s an issue and they’ve been very supportive,“ Phillips said.
Decatur City Council President Pai ..
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