Latimer announces Cybersecurity Task Force to address possible threats

The group of experts will review the county's current cybersecurity policies, propose new laws to increase safety and recommend where funds should go.

News 12 Staff

Feb 23, 2022, 10:51 PM

Updated 1,018 days ago

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Westchester Executive George Latimer announced a local Cybersecurity Task Force to address possible threats and future hacking, phishing and ransomware.
The group of experts will review the county's current cybersecurity policies, propose new laws to increase safety and recommend where funds should go.
The plan for this task force is bigger than the Russia-Ukraine conflict - local governments have become increasingly more vulnerable to cybercrime in the last decade.
Most notably in 2013, seven Iranian hackers breached the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook. It was a minor attack with bigger implications about the state of U.S. national security.
Several county municipalities and school districts have also fallen victim to phishing in the last few years as well.
"We are concerned about what might come out of the Russia-Ukrainian conflict, what that may mean for us, and so obviously we're anxious to get to work as soon as we can," says Latimer.
A cyberattack on Westchester could impact the county's water systems, schools and health care facilities.