Almost every day, information headlines function warnings of cybersecurity knowledge breaches and theft of buyer info – a worrying pattern for governments, healthcare organizations and personal corporations.
Johnson County Libraries works diligently to forestall these threats and defend the privateness of our patrons.
In March 2022, Johnson County Library employed John Cisseloff because the library’s first full-time cybersecurity analyst. Since then, he has been centered on defending the library’s techniques, on-line companies, and patron info. He is a part of the library’s info expertise (IT) workforce that shares these priorities and works intently with different safety analysts throughout Johnson County authorities.
Threats are continuously evolving, so safety analysts work exhausting to remain one step forward of malicious actors.
“We take a really proactive strategy to cybersecurity,” Sicelov mentioned.
The motto, he mentioned, is to “defend the confidentiality, integrity and availability of library belongings.”
Cicelov experiences to Information Technology Manager Michelle Beasley, who oversees a workforce of 12 professionals. Beasley says her workforce has grown lately, with safety changing into an more and more vital a part of everybody’s function.
“The library administration and library board have been very supportive of constructing and sustaining a tradition of safety within the library,” Beasley says. “That’s the general theme. We allocate human and budgetary assets. All library employees obtain common safety consciousness coaching and we encourage safety finest practices.”
So far, that tradition has helped the Johnson County Library keep away from latest cyberattacks and ransomware assaults that affected the Kansas City and Jackson County governments, the Kansas state court docket system and the Scout visitors digicam system.
Siceloff and the library’s studying and improvement workforce present safety consciousness coaching. All new workers obtain coaching upon becoming a member of the corporate, and all employees additionally take part in periodic coaching.
“We do annual fundamental coaching for everybody,” Cicelov mentioned. “We have month-to-month video coaching and month-to-month e mail phishing simulations.”
Training can be required for part-time employees, in addition to County Librarian Tricia Suellentrop and different senior directors.
“Our workers have been excellent at complying with coaching necessities,” Beasley mentioned. “We’ve been very constant in that regard.”
Some of the highest methods workers are utilizing to make sure library expertise is safe embrace recognizing and reporting phishing emails, utilizing sturdy passwords, utilizing multi-factor authentication for delicate logins (e.g., receiving a code in your cell phone to confirm your id), and holding software program and {hardware} updated.
These fundamental rules and methods don’t require IT coaching and can be utilized by anybody each day to keep away from cybersecurity threats.
Beasley mentioned Libby, the e-book and e-audiobook supplier, and the library’s different on-line companies utilized by the general public have sturdy safety controls in place.
The library takes nice care to guard the restricted info associated to library card accounts and any knowledge transmitted or saved. “Protecting our patrons’ privateness is our primary concern,” Shiselov emphasised. “Patient belief is one in all our prime priorities.”
Cicelov mentioned the work is rarely finished, but it surely’s rewarding as a result of the group acknowledges that it is so vital. “You need to be versatile to study and adapt to new applied sciences,” he mentioned. “What’s essential for somebody in my function is the help and cooperation of administration, and I get that right here.”