This week, I had the pleasure of speaking to local government officials at the Cyber Florida workshop in Marion County. Local governments are increasingly coming under attack by cybercriminals. Last year, several cities, and at least one Florida school district, were held hostage by these tech-savvy swindlers.

Ocala’s city government was recently targeted by a costly spear-phishing email scam—a highly effective cyberattack that uses deceptive emails targeted to specific employees—all in an effort to steal data or hold computer systems hostage. A leader in the cybersecurity industry recently reported that more than 90% of the cyber threats encountered by its clients during the first half of 2019 stemmed from spear-phishing email scams.

These attacks on our cities are costly and divert the government’s focus away from serving citizens. Workshops, like the one in Ocala this week, help local leaders across Florida implement procedures to prevent, respond to and recover from cyberattacks.

The workshop, called Cybersecurity for Government Leaders and Employees, was extremely informative, focusing on successful policies and best practices for Florida leaders and government employees to strengthen their cybersecurity.

It’s vital that government officials take steps to protect sensitive information that has been entrusted to their care. As your Attorney General, I will continue to look for ways we can improve in this area and seek new resources to stop cybercriminals targeting our local governments and Floridians.

By working together to protect sensitive information and stop cybercriminals, we can build a Stronger, Safer Florida.