Greek yogurt shop opening in Gilbert PAGE 15
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
This Week
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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New owners getting famed race school on track.
COMMUNITY .................
13
Higley teachers take lessons to China.
GETOUT .........................
Sunday, August 25, 2019
GPS grapples with hackers, cyber crooks
INSIDE
NEWS .................................
Ducey outlines plan to curb suicides PAGE 9
21
Exhibit probes U.S.-Mexico relationship through art.
COMMUNITY ..................... 13 BUSINESS ............................ 15 OPINION .............................. 18 SPORTS ............................... 20 GETOUT ............................... 21 CLASSIFIED........................24
E
arlier this year an employee in Gilbert Public Schools’ accounts payable department received an email from one of the district’s known vendors. The employee opened the attachment with no reason to believe anything was wrong. But there was. “When they clicked on the attachment, it delivered a virus into our network,” said Ward Heinemann, district system administration coordinator. “It was a worm that spread itself from computer to computer within that department. “They actively read our directory infor-
mation and uploaded account names and attempted to break into those over the weekend until they locked the accounts sequentially or one after the other. We came back Monday morning and had a whole series of accounts locked out because of the attack.” The hacker attempted to break in either to steal information to sell or lock up the district’s system for ransom, Heinemann said. Ransomware is a $1-billion-a-year criminal enterprise, according to the FBI. Crooks demand money from the victims of such attacks in return for unlocking access to data or systems. The March incident was not out of the norm for Gilbert Public Schools, which is under attack daily in cyberspace, the district’s
technology staff recently told the GPS Governing Board. School districts have become prime targets of cyber crimes because they lack the means to protect themselves like the Fortune 500 companies, according to Jon Castelhano, executive director of technology. “School districts don’t have the resources, they don’t have the security officers, they don’t have the proper tools,” Castelhano said. “But even the Fortune 500 companies are still hit, so throwing money at it is not necessarily the answer.” What makes school districts especially appealing to hackers is that they have access to sensitive data and finances that can be
Gilbert lawmaker serves constituents and country
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
O
ver the summer first-term state Rep. Travis Grantham was answering emails and calling constituents — nothing out of the ordinary other than he was doing it from 8,000 miles away. Grantham, who took office in 2017 representing District 12, was on deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan. “As time permitted, I took care of duty,” the Gilbert resident said. “I was in direct communication with my administrative assistant, returned phone calls and emails while I was there. “I got to do what is best for the people of Gilbert, they are the ones who hired me. I can’t just disappear.” Grantham, 40, left in June and returned
in late July on just one of many deployments during his years in the Arizona Air National Guard’s 161st Air Refueling Wing based out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Grantham completed basic training at Lack- Gilbert resident and state Rep. Travis Grantham may be the only current legislator currently servland Air Force ing in the U.S. military. (Submitted Photo) Base in San Antonio, Texas and served as an aircraft main- undergraduate pilot training and earned his tenance technician on the KC-135E Strato- wings in August 2003. tanker. Upon graduating from Arizona State University, he was picked for specialized �ee GRANTHAM page 6
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