James May June 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 70
The plans should define the state
response to major cyber events, such
as an attack on critical infrastructure,
but should also describe actions individuals can take if they fall victim to
a cyber scam. For example, there is
a 71 percent chance of recovering an
electronic funds loss if the incident is
reported through the FBI’s IC3 website in a timely manner.
Fortunately, the Georgia Cyber
Innovation & Training Center has
already developed effective and
affordable solutions that could easily
be scaled to help meet many of the
state’s cybersecurity challenges. For
example, as one of Georgia Tech’s
partners on the U.S. Economic Development Administration-funded Georgia Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing (AIM) project, we developed cyber
risk assessment teams that provide
technical assessments to manufacturers to help them understand their risk,
then provide mitigation recommendations and appropriate training to the
organization— to include facilitating a
Tabletop Exercise for leadership.
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Although the current program
is tailored to manufacturers, it can
be easily modified to support any
organization, from additional business types to local governments. To
keep the program affordable and
scalable, we utilize highly-trained
university students as the majority of our workforce, led by subject
matter experts. In the future, we
plan to expand this program into a
Cyber Resiliency Center concept to
serve as an information sharing hub
and provide consulting services,
monitoring services and incident
response assistance to local government entities and small businesses.
Additionally, we’ve developed
a cutting-edge cyber range that can
greatly enhance cyber education
and academic research across the
state. Instead of every school district,
college, and university trying to create
their own hands-on cyber labs at extreme costs, we could provide a single
platform solution that is easily accessible to any school in the state through
a low-bandwidth web interface.
THE GEORGIA CYBER CENTER
These are only a couple of examples of proven pilot programs we
could scale to meet statewide needs
and I’m sure there are more similar
programs across the state. As for
the growing cybersecurity threat,
we can invest a little up front, or pay
a whole lot more down the road. A
statewide campaign that starts to
create a culture of cybersecurity is a
great way to start.
Col. Eric Toler (USA-Ret.) is the executive director
of the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training
Center in Augusta.
