FAIRMONT — When it comes to cyber security, we often think of home computers, businesses and banks. But local government also has to deal with its fair share of issues.

Fortunately, Martin County’s data has been well protected over the years, thanks to management information systems director Steven McDonald.

One of the issues with keeping data safe and systems secure is a problem that often plagues local governments: a lack of funding or resources.

“I haven’t seen that,” McDonald said. “So far, we’ve received most of the things that we’ve asked for.

“We have secured all our systems all along, but we’ve just become more aware of the different threats and things that are out there. Ransomware has been around for a while, and somebody’s always trying to hack into your systems. So we’ve been trying to eliminate that all along. I haven’t met any resistance, when I budget things or try to do stuff I haven’t had any issues with funding.”

McDonald noted that one of the larger security threats is people looking to steal information.

“Be it Social Security numbers or private personal information,” he said. “They are different sorts of threats from phising attacks to social engineering.”

Phishing consist of emails purporting to be from reputable people or companies in order to induce individuals to reveal passwords and credit card numbers. Through such an attack, a computer also can be controlled remotely.

“Social engineering is when they call you up and pretend to be from Microsoft or something and get passwords or information that way,” McDonald said.

He noted that part of his efforts consist of making people aware of such threats.

“We send notices out to staff about things we may see come about, and keep them as up to date as possible,” he said. “We subscribe to a Department of Homeland Security site that sends out cyber security threat information so we can try to keep up on it that way too.”

McDonald said users are probably one of the No. 1 risks to computer systems. However, he is pleased with county staff, noting that while there has not been much in the way of formal training, they seem to understand when they need to call him.

“If they get emails that look suspicious, they call us,” he said. “It’s been a pretty positive thing.

“You will always get somebody that will click [on an email] no matter what, but we also run our email through a spam and virus service. So that’s one line of defense that we implement. We also try to limit some activity on the internet. We have antivirus software installed on all the computers. We have servers in house that push out all the patches and updates to the servers on the network, and we keep our software up to date.”

In the end, McDonald noted that cyber security threats are always present, but he is pleased to work with people who understand the importance of remaining vigilant.

“It’s a big thing out there, and it’s hard to know everything that’s going on at all times,” he said. “So we try to keep up with what we can with what resources we have.”