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Last Wednesday, the networking behemoth Cisco announced that it had been hacked by a ransomware group. The confirmation came as the hackers published a partial list of files of the nearly 3 GB worth of data it claims to have stolen. Readers may remember the ransomware attack on the city of Atlanta in March of 2018. That attack was the largest breach for a major American city by ransomware. It was estimated a third of the software programs used by the city were offline or at least partially disabled several months later, with legal documents and police dashcam video files permanently deleted. The attack was later attributed to two Iranian hackers, two criminals halfway around the world who cost the city untold amounts of lost time and some $9 million in payments to contractors to recover.

Whether large or small, government or private company, cybersecurity is one of the biggest challenges as the digital age goes global. Here in Georgia, LGE Community Credit Union (LGE) is making it a priority. The Marietta-based LGE manages some $2 billion in assets and serves more than 125,000 members, making it the sixth largest credit union in Georgia.

In 2018, LGE’s director of information security attended a conference in Chicago and connected with representatives from the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI). The CRI is composed of business leaders from many sectors across the country and works to develop free cybersecurity tools for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Oftentimes, SMBs are a valuable part of the supply chain for the largest of companies and they make up the vast majority of employers.

Launched in 2017, the CRI was launched following the recommendations of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, an independent, bipartisan commission tasked in 2016 to find solutions for securing the digital economy.. The Cyber Readiness Program was launched in December of 2018, a free online program that focuses on human behavior to make businesses safer and more secure. Despite the technological prowess of some of these hacker groups, ultimately, the way for many of them is still an errant click or download by employees or others affiliated with the company.

LGE joined CRI as a Cyber Readiness Champion in 2019, cementing their commitment to helping their members stay secure and resilient against attacks. There are fewer than 100 Cyber Readiness Champions across the country and LGE Community Credit Union is the only financial institution to be designated as such. LGE is able to take advantage of the program themselves but as a champion they help to spread the word about cyber readiness. They use their website and social media channels to share CRI’s free training. The training is designed to be accessible for all companies, regardless of size, technical expertise or sector. More than 75% of the participating companies have said the program has had a high or very high impact on their organization’s cyber readiness. After completing the Cyber Readiness Program, professionals can also achieve the Cyber Leader Certificate Program credential that demonstrates a commitment to cybersecurity.

To learn more about the CRI and find out how you or your company could become involved:

https://cyberreadinessinstitute.org/