The City of San Diego introduced a new tool in the war against cyber criminals and the city is sharing it with the region.
It’s called the San Diego Regional Cyber Lab and it’s dedicated to teaching everyone from small businesses to public agencies to combat cybercrime.
“It’s insane. I mean, it’s just a growing problem,” sighed Darren Bennett, the city’s Chief Information Security Officer. “It’s grown to a point where if it was its own economy, it would be the third-largest in the world after the U.S. and China.”
Bennett said cybercrime profits have surpassed the entire drug trade’s profits.
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“That’s a lot of money that’s being made by cybercriminals,” he said.
Just this week, hackers disrupted the San Diego Unified School District. Earlier this year, they hacked into a local hospital system’s payroll. According to Check Point Research, education and research organizations are hit by more than 2,000 cyber-attacks a week.
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In order to defend against future attacks, businesses and agencies need to spend money on information technology infrastructure.
“I.T. isn’t cheap. Some of this stuff is incredibly expensive,” explained Ian Brazill of the Regional Cyber Lab.
Brazill explained that’s why the City of San Diego invested two Department of Homeland Security grants in the lab and made it available to everyone. People make appointments on the city’s website to work and learn from experts like Brazill or cyber security engineer Jeff Schiffman.
“We’re hoping to create the next generation of people that are informed,” said Schiffman.
“The bad guys are really good at collaborating and working together and I think it’s vital we do the same if we want to win at this,” concluded Bennett.