While the world worries about the new Petya ransomware that's spreading throughout Europe this week, Calaveras County faced its own cybersecurity threats.
The county site’s usual content was hacked on Wednesday and replaced with allegedly pro-ISIS images. The site was returned to normal today.
“Website defacements” such as that seen on Calaveras County’s site this week are common, Commander of California Cyber Security Integration Center Keith Tresh told Techwire via email, adding that they "rarely, if ever, have any other payloads or consequences.”
Tresh also noted that the multinational Petya attack did not seem to be related to the Calaveras County incident.
“We have no evidence that links these two incidents,” Tresh said.
There have been no other major threats to state or county systems. However, governments must protect sensitive information.
“All government entities face potentially hundreds of threats a day," Tresh said. "It's the nature of the threatscape today."
In order to avoid similar incidents and minimize costs, many governments have moved data to the cloud — but even then, the public sector must focus on “due diligence.”
“Keep up with latest patches and software updates, and continuously monitor activity on their networks,” Tresh said. “It all goes back to the level of security entities use to protect their systems and data. Just because they are in the cloud doesn't mean they are not vulnerable.”
