NSAA Hack is Just Latest Cyberattack

By Gordon HopkinsIf users found the website of the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) difficult to use Thursday night, October 14, 2022, there was a reason for that.The NSAA reported the site had been struck by a type of cyberattack known as a Distributed Denial-of-Service, or DDoS, attack. Sometimes a website can operate slowly or crash when too many users attempt to access it at the same time, which is usually not malicious. A DDoS attack, on the other hand, is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming it or surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.The website was restored by Friday morning.Cybersecurity continues to be a priority for both private and government entities. Such disruptions can be costly, both to fix and in lost work hours.Earlier this month, a virus disrupted Douglas County's 911 system. Fortunately, the staff was trained to answer and dispatch calls without the computer system, although additional staff was brought in to handle the additional work created by not having access to their computers, because everything had to be written down. Douglas County officials insisted at no time was public safety in jeopardy.That attack was determined to be ransomware. Malware (malicious software) is a computer file or code that can infect a computer system and be used to steal, destroy or alter data. Ransomware is malware that employs encryption to hold computer information for ransom. Once in the system, critical data, applications and files are no longer accessible by the legitimate user. It is called ransomware because a ransom is then demanded by the perpetrators to release the infected systems.Cybersecurity was also a topic at a recent meeting of Jefferson County Commissioners. Brad Eisenhauer, Jefferson County IT (Information Technology) told commissioners on Tuesday, October 11, that much of his time was being spent on security issueS, “It's actually getting to be almost a full-time job, just keeping up with cybersecurity. That's probably 80-85 percent of my time.”Last year, an external, independent cybersecurity audit of Jefferson County’s computer systems was completed. Eisenhauer recommended doing such an assessment every year, “It's good to have another set of eyes on the network that hasn't seen it before.”

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