Escambia County played host this week to only the second occurrence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Cybersecurity Incident Response for IT Personnel, a new pilot course designed to improve information technology professionals' acumen in cybersecurity.
Employees from a cluster of local governments and institutions participated in the course. It took place at the Escambia County Public Safety building from Wednesday to Friday.
The simulation involved cyberattacks on a fictional city's municipal departments, hospital and university. The participants were divided among seven teams. Participating governments and organizations included Escambia County, Santa Rosa County, the city of Pensacola, Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, the University of West Florida and Baptist Health Care.
The course, which had previously only occurred in College Station, Texas, in May, was administered through a partnership between Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service and government cybersecurity contractor Metova.
Bill Dunn, president of Metova CyberCENTS, said with the prevalence of everyday computer usage — from social media to online banking to booking vacations — all would be wise to boost their awareness of cyber threats.
"When it comes to cyber, it's always an evolving thing," he said. "There's always a new attack or a new scenario or a new tool being used against us. So you've got to be diligent and we've got to make sure we're being trained on a constant basis, at least on the awareness side so we know what's coming."
Doug Underhill, chairman of the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners, said the Pensacola region was a natural choice to host the course. Underhill helped to organize the event. He pointed to the local entities that require a high level of cybersecurity, such as the area's military, which includes Navy and Air Force installations as well as the Department of Homeland Security. He also cited the presence of local IT companies, such as AppRiver and Metova; the region's hospitals; and the local utilities.
"All of the things that can go right and can go wrong, can go right and wrong right here in Escambia County," he said. "So it's a perfect lab for this environment."
In addition to the region's military presence and private companies, Pensacola's cybersecurity sector also includes the UWF Center for Cybersecurity. The center recently earned designation as the National Center Academic of Excellence Regional Resource Center for the Southeast region. The honor was given to the university in a joint sponsorship between the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
The regional focus on cybersecurity is not without good reason. According to the Department of Homeland Security's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies, about one out of every five Americans have been victimized by cybercrime. Cyberattacks also cost the average U.S. company more than $15.4 million annually.
After the completion of the FEMA pilot, Underhill said the hope is that all local IT professionals lean on each other in a collaborative effort to stymie cyberattacks.
"Once you start collaborating, you start putting your resources in, and somebody else puts their resources in," Underhill said. "Barriers start dropping. We start to get ahead of the problem. Instead of responding to the hacker, instead of responding to threats, we're defending and building a network in a community that is more resilient against those threats. That's what I expect to see happen here."
(Article Link: http://www.pnj.com/story/money/business/2017/06/23/escambia-county-fema-cybersecurity-pilot-course-underhill/421092001/)