TRENTON, Ohio — In a unanimous emergency vote, the city of Trenton's council members moved to strengthen the town's cybersecurity program in the wake of attacks in nearby West Chester and Middletown that have continued to interrupt services more than a month later.
We talked to Trenton Mayor Ryan Perry about what was included in the plan ahead of Thursday's council meeting.
"Obviously, I don't want to share too much because I don't want to divulge our security plans," Perry said.
He did, however, say the goal was to have defenses in place to keep an attacker at bay, limit access to sensitive information and ensure the city can restore operations as soon as possible after an attack occurs.
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"It's almost a changing world," Perry said. "Cybersecurity is just as important now as physical security."
We wanted to know what was happening on a broader scale in Southwest Ohio, so we reached out to Richard Harknett, a University of Cincinnati professor and Director of the Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy.
Harknett said many smaller towns or cities are seen as easy targets for criminal hackers or foreign state actors.
"There's an old adage, you know, when they ask the bank robber why he robbed the bank, he says 'because that's where the money is,'" Harknett said.
Harknett said there are ways for municipalities to protect their data and servers, including participation in a free class for local governments by the Ohio Cyber Range Institute called the Ohio Persistent Cyber Improvement for Local Government.
107 municipalities have signed up for the course in the last six weeks compared to 31 who'd taken the program in the first six months of its existence, Harknett said.
Harknett said that internet safety can no longer be viewed as a one-time fix for companies or governments.
"What we're doing is getting past that 30-minute video they give you once a year. This is a persistent threat environment," Harknett said.
Because the council waived additional readings of the resolution and suspended the rules, Trenton's security plan will be implemented as soon as possible.
