EXPANDED COVERAGE FROM YOUR COMMUNITY

As officials with the city of Atlanta try to determine how much data may have been compromised when its systems were hacked in a Thursday cyberattack, cities in north Fulton County are being proactive.

Spokesmen with Alpharetta and Sandy Springs said they weren’t affected by the attack on Atlanta’s data, but the dan- ger of potential cyberattacks on any city always exists.

“Cyber criminals and hack- ers are a constant threat to any organization that oper- ates computer networks, websites or a social media presence, and the city of Alpharetta is no exception to that,” said James Drinkard, the assistant city administrator.

Over the past few years, Drinkard said the city has had “a limited number of intrusion attempts” to its systems and networks, but so far, Alpharetta’s security measures have stood strong.

Still, he said, the city’s information technology department is constantly making improvements to Alpharetta’s security measures, so personal data or sensitive systems aren’t compromised.

“This includes periodically having outside cybersecurity consultants audit our security systems and protocols and test them for potential vul- nerabilities,” Drinkard said. “Our team has increased the training and testing of our employees on how to spot and avoid the latest phishing scams and other techniques for tricking users into allowing entry into our systems. It is a constant battle, but one at which our professionals are very good.”

Sandy Springs spokeswoman Sharon Kraun said, “Maintaining a secure infrastructure is a top priority” for everyone.

“The city uses a variety of security measures, both cloud-based and local, to ensure the safety of our data,” she said. “There is an ongoing threat of being hacked, not only for Sandy Springs, but for any business or municipality which utilizes online services.”