The issue of cybersecurity has been highlighted recently by everything from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to recent cyberattacks on Israeli government websites.
Closer to home, Honolulu’s first responders, the Board of Water Supply, and Oʻahu Transit Services have all been hit.
Jodi Ito and Frank Pace carefully watch digital security in Hawaiʻi.
Ito is the chief security officer for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Pace is with the Hawaiʻi Department of Defense.
They told HPR what the government is doing to protect critical infrastructure, help small businesses safeguard information, and offered these closing thoughts.
"It really is to up all of us, as a whole community effort, to really try to secure ourselves in this cyber world. Basic cyber hygiene practices, use multi-factor authentication, patch your computers, run anti-virus or anti-spyware on your computers. You know, just raise yourself up. So you're not the lowest hanging fruit where the attackers can come and hit you," Ito said.
"I would just add that it is a collective effort amongst all of us. It's not just the state or the federal government asking," Pace said. "It’s that to collectively, we all have to do our part to maintain those security updates. But then also, those that are in that supply chain for critical infrastructure, to coordinate and in to be part of this process that we're trying to do to better protect the state of Hawaiʻi."
Ito added that the one thing the public can do this week to protect themselves is to check for software updates on their computer.
This interview aired as part of a call-in show on The Conversation on March 17, 2022. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
