Fayetteville police: As cyber threats across NWA grow, technology protection is key

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Fayetteville Police Department had first-hand experience last year with a “ cyber incident ” affecting the city, and since that incident, others have affected Bella Vista , Washington County , and the NorthWest Arkansas Community College .

Steve Krogull, the assistant vice chancellor for information technology at the University of Arkansas, says he thinks that cyberattacks are getting creative, scamming people left and right.

“What’s interesting is that I think the attacks are getting more sophisticated. It’s a thriving business because there is no real downside to the attack. All it takes is one person to click, and it moves them farther ahead than they were a second ago,” Krogull said. “Personal information is for sale so the easiest first line is medical information, banking information is so very easy to sell. We have heard of the dark web too, so there is a part of the web where information is exchanged for money.”

Sgt. Stephen Mauk with the Fayetteville Police Department has seen reports in the past involving cyberattacks.

“What we do find, however, is most of the culprits that we’re seeing are not from this country,” Mauk said.

Mauk said the department has had first-hand experience with a cyber attack threat. Their first step was to get help from the IT department.

“We have a whole team, the city, and the police department whose job every day coming in is to support our information technology,” Mauk said.

Krogull thinks that IT departments can help, but sometimes it is just the lack of protected passwords over some time.

“The problem right now is that almost everybody has a username and password. A lot of the software you see now will ask you for multi-factor authentication or MFA. The MFA gives you a little bit of defense and if your username and password have been compromised, that third credential can be the difference between having your account compromised and you being able to work without the issue,” Krogull said.

To download a two-factor authenticator app, you can find a link below.

• DUO Authentication app
• Aigeis Authenticator app
• Microsoft Authenticator app
• Google two-factor Authentication app

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