MENASHA (NBC 26) — When disaster hits, help often rushes in from other cities or states, but what if the disaster isn't coming from mother nature but rather from cyberspace?
“Wisconsin Emergency Management looks at cyber-preparedness planning really no different than flood or tornado or any other type of emergency incident type of planning,” said Eric Franco, Wisconsin Emergency Management Cybersecurity Preparedness Coordinator.
The Wisconsin Cyber Response Team (CRT), is a group of people from around the state that volunteers to learn how to handle cyber-attacks.
“In full Wisconsin tradition right, we've got people who are willing to volunteer, neighbor helping neighbor as we like to say,” said Franco. “The more risk we can reduce statewide, the less we have to have to worry about the incident scaling to a severity that would really jeopardize critical infrastructure or schools, county, or municipal government functions.”
Tracee Gleichner is an I.T. technician for the Menasha Joint School District and recently joined the CRT.
“I have been interested in technology for many years,” said Gleichner “I jumped at the opportunity because I know it's not going anywhere. I mean, technology is it's here to stay.”
Gleichner says school districts are common targets of cyber-attacks, and she wanted to join the CRT so she could help her school district be prepared.
“We're going to get hit. It's not an if thing, it's when are we going to get hit? Because that's what we're told, everybody's going to be hit at some point, and are we prepared?” said Gleichner.
She told us that cyber-awareness doesn't only involve large-scale attacks. There are everyday occurrences she wants people to be aware of.
“It's [the] knowledge that I think is so needed in the public because you hear every day, somebody clicked on this… So don't click on anything that you receive, really, without doing another verification before you do,” said Gleichner.
Gleichner emphasized that she wants people to be cautious but not fearful about cybersecurity.
“People need to be aware of what's out there and what can happen if you do the wrong thing,” said Gleichner.
The Cyber Response Team is for anyone interested in learning about cybersecurity. They're always looking for volunteers for their general network, which has more than 400 volunteers.
“It allows for information sharing about common and trending threats throughout the state, cyber security news that is disseminated to the entire network,” said Franco.
Gleichner would encourage anyone interested to learn more about CRT stating “You can't have too many people, there is no such thing as too many people to try to fight what's happening.”
