It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and for the Greene County School District, there are several safeguards in place to keep the district protected against possible cyber attacks.

Brent Gerzema is the Director of Technology for the school district and says one way he brings awareness to staff is by doing a series of email phishing campaigns through a company called KnowBe4. He says phishing emails are potential threats from hackers trying to access someone’s personal information. The company sends out non-harmful phishing emails and if people click on it, they are diverted to a website highlighting what to look for in potential email threats. 

Gerzema talks about why he wanted to have staff go these kinds of practices.

“It’s the world we live in today. And unfortunately you hear about it all the time. There’s so much money in cyber attacks. In the event that maybe a staff member were to, God forbid, give a  credit card out that would be something that they have to deal with. But on top of that if they gave out school credentials or if they click on a malicious link that maybe installed a virus on their computer, then the district is dealing with it as well.”

Gerzema recommends the public to be alert for phishing emails, verify if an email is authentic by going to the official source or connecting with the provider or individual who sent the email. He points out the district has a general firewall and content filter to catch most potential threats, along with having anti-virus software on district-issued computers.