By Laura Swanson
The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners, various department heads, Sheriff Jim Horton and Emergency Management Director Gordon McCraw held a final executive session, closed to the public on Friday January 24th for an update on the cyberattack that locked down the County’s computers and phone systems on Wednesday January 22nd.
Activating an incident command team on Thursday, and appointing Gordon McCraw as public information officer. The official statement was that the digital forensic incident recovery team from Arete Advisors was working diligently to alleviate the impacts and get systems back online as soon as possible. Additional executive sessions would be called as needed, and an update will provided on Monday January 27th.
These cyberattacks are becoming common practice, happening across the country at businesses, governments and individuals. The recent hacking of Amazon head Jeff Bezos’ cell phone is a high-profile example. People here are lulled into a false sense of security, because it’s a small town, it won’t happen here, but in reality, rural areas are more vulnerable to international cyber security breaches. Everyone needs to be maintaining diligent vigilance when it comes to information security. What can you do to protect yourself?
Here are some tips from Harmonium LLC:
Make sure software and firmware security updates are installed regularly on every machine on your network- including computers, printers, tablets and smartphones.
• Backup all systems regularly to a set of removable disks.
• Use unique, lengthy, complex passwords/passphrases on every website or user account. Do not share passwords between websites. Use a password as long as the account will allow.
• Use a password manager, such as 1Password or Dashlane, to store your passwords.
• Use two-factor authentication everywhere it is available. However, not all forms of two-factor authentication are created equal.
• Upgrade your antivirus to include a more modern detection system, such as Cylance Home.
• Install ad blockers on all web browsers.
If you’ve been affected by the Tillamook Chiropractic Clinic breach:
• Monitor your credit report. Obtain & review a copy of your credit report at least annually.
• Monitor your bank accounts closely. Any instances of fraud should be reported to your bank within two days of each monthly statement.
• If you believe an incident of fraud or identity theft has occurred, you can work with credit grantors to close fraudulent accounts, place a freeze on your credit file with each of the three major credit agencies, and report the incident to local law enforcement or the FBI at: www.ic3.gov.
• Experian can be reached at: 1 (888) 397-3742 or http://www.experian.com/ consumer-information/cis-contact-business.html
• Equifax can be reached at: 1 (800) 727-8495 or https://www.equifax.com/ personal/contact-us/
• TransUnion can be reached at: 1 (800) 813-5604 or https://www.transunion.com/ customer-support/contact-us-consumers
• You can also notify the Federal Trade Commission by following the steps outlined at https://www.identitytheft.gov/ or call 1877-ID-THEFT (438-4338).
• If you would like additional resources relating to protecting yourself from identity theft, you can visit Oregon’s Consumer Protection website located at https://www.doj.state.or.us/consumer-protection/id-theft-data-breaches/identity-theft/.