The task force, which the county has worked to establish for over a year, debuted less than two weeks after CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity technology company, distributed a defective firmware update, leading to millions of computer systems to temporarily crash, including those used by DuPage County.
“The recent CrowdStrike outage alone is reason enough to get IT professionals to discuss ways we can collaborate and assist each other as issues arise,” Yeena Yoo, chair of the DuPage County Technology Committee, said in a news release. “I think our Cybersecurity Task Force provides a mechanism for that essential mutual aid and to increase security across systems within DuPage County.”
While the CrowdStrike outages caused major damage to other industries the effect on DuPage County was minimal and the real reason for the task force was a result of a ramping up of cyberattacks over the last few years.
“We were able to fix the situation within hours, so it really didn’t affect us,” Yoo said in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “The task force specifically came about because of what had happened in Addison and what had happened at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.”
According to Yoo, the Village of Addison and Northwestern Memorial Hospital experienced separate ransomware attacks that left their computer systems inoperable for weeks. In 2020, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare was the victim of a data breach that left 56,000 patients’ and donors’ personal information vulnerable.
The Cybersecurity Task Force is an opportunity to share resources, information and to collaborate between municipalities in DuPage, Yoo said. “I’m pleased with the enthusiastic response from our communities regarding the county’s desire to host a roundtable dealing with important technology issues we all face as public bodies.”
The task force’s first meeting is scheduled for Aug. 29.
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