The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 108, No. 41 - October 10, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................11
Champions of Business....2
Classifieds..........................10
Community Briefs...............3
Crossword/Sudoku...........10
Entertainment....................11
Legals....................................9
Obituaries.............................2
Real Estate.......................5-8
Sports.............................. 4,11
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny
81˚/57˚
Saturday
Sunny
76˚/57˚
Sunday
Sunny
72˚/57˚
Tower60 Turns Pink for Breast
Cancer Awareness This Month
El Segundo Beach’s local Tower60 lifeguard station got a pink makeover last week as volunteers gathered for the inaugural Paint It Pink project. Spearheaded by realtor Alex Abad, the Tower60 Foundation
hopes to raise $50,000 for breast cancer awareness. Photo: Heidi Maerker
City of El Segundo Gets Serious
About Cybersecurity Outreach
By Brian Simon
During October, much attention gets directed
towards recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness
Month – and deservedly so, as the El Segundo
City Council recognized the milestone with a
proclamation last week. But also during the
same meeting, Information Systems Director
Charles Mallory came to the podium to make
a presentation on another topic that continues
to grow in importance as the world continues
on its digital path. October additionally owns
the moniker of National Cybersecurity Awareness
Month and that has prompted Mallory, his
staff and the City of El Segundo as a whole
to focus on beefing up its online protection
while providing critical outreach to help local
businesses and residents do the same.
“We have made a concerted effort to educate
and prepare City staff by providing computerbased
cybersecurity training, which involves
reviewing methods cyber-attackers practice,”
Mallory explained. “The training taught us
what to look for and how to recognize some
of the tells that are common with cyberattacks.
With the understanding that we cannot
stop all attempts, our best defense is how we
respond to them.”
According to Mallory, the first line of protection
is the user. “We continue training by
issuing phishing campaigns that send counterfeit
emails out to staff, and we are proud to say that
many of the people practiced the skills from
the training,” he said. “This is a continuous
process that evolves as the cybersecurity and
threat landscape changes.”
Established by the Department of Homeland
Security in 2004, National Cybersecurity
Awareness Month is a collaborative effort
between government and industry to share
information that aims to drive home the
importance of cybersecurity. For 2019
specifically, the objective is to emphasize
personal accountability as well as the need to
take proactive steps to bolster cybersecurity
both at home and in the workspace. This
year’s program preaches the message, “Own
IT. Secure IT. Protect IT.” The focus is on the
key areas of citizen privacy, consumer devices
and e-commerce security. “The bottom line is
each and every one of us needs to do our part
when it comes to cybersecurity,” Mallory said.
In the “Own IT” category, Mallory elaborated
that “you really have to own the activity.” As
an example, he noted, those taking pictures
probably should not GeoPost them because then
other people can find out the time the photos
were taken as well as the location. “If you’re
going on vacation, I don’t know that I would
post that on Facebook because basically anyone
that’s taking a look at Facebook knows that
you’re actually on vacation,” Mallory warned.
The “Secure IT” portion of the mantra encourages
strong passwords with Multi-Factor
Authentication (MFA) that utilize two different
ways of entering into a system as an enhanced
security measure. “I use password phrases
instead of a single password,” Mallory pointed
out, while offering an example of how one
can be tweaked to make it more complex.
“One of the passwords I’ve used historically
is, ‘ILoveMondays…’ Loving Mondays gives
me a chance to correct everything I got wrong
the previous week... If you take that phrase
and maybe change the ‘o’ to an ‘@’ sign on
‘Love’ and maybe change the ‘e’ or ‘s’ to a ‘$’
sign, you have a password that you can easily
remember. You can also change that password
when the time comes with respect to just changing
those signs.” Lastly, Mallory added, the area
of “Protect IT” emphasizes the need to “think
before you click” – a message seemingly at the
forefront of most communication these days.
Mallory reported that his department’s training
campaign will run throughout the month
and includes a “brown bag or two” to train
employees. The project additionally entails
publishing information on the Internet via the
City’s website for the public to glean various
helpful hints and reminders.
Cybersecurity is an all-encompassing term
for the various technologies, processes and
practices in place to protect networks, devices,
programs and data from attack, damage or
unauthorized access. In today’s age, just about
everyone collects, processes and stores data on
computers and other digital devices. The list of
those who rely on the data includes vital government
agencies and the military, plus corporate,
financial and medical organizations – not to
mention countless small businesses and home
users. No one is immune to potential attack.
See Cybersecurity, page 9