Employees are dragging their feet

One in four?

You must be kidding.

But, nope, that’s how many Jay County government employees have not yet taken training aimed at keeping the county safe from ransomware, viruses and other assorted junk that might derail the county’s server via the internet.

One in four?

We don’t get it.

Jay County Commissioners signed up with a cybersecurity company called KnowB4 in an attempt to keep the county’s data safe.

It seemed an inarguably good idea at the time.

After all, most cyber bad guys gain entry via emails that look harmless but carry toxic cargo. Everyone who has spent any time clicking through email knows they are out there.

And many of us pride ourselves on being able to avoid them or delete them. But pride can be a dangerous thing when it comes to the internet. All it takes is a click.

The commissioners’ approach was to link up with a company that could provide training to avoid those fateful clicks. What better defense could there be than to provide more knowledge and more training for county employees?

Then again, if that knowledge is to be gained, folks have to take the time to do the training. And one in four county employees — at last count — has balked or shelved the idea or simply walked away.

That’s unacceptable by any measure.

Keep in mind that these employees share a single server for their email. If they click on some phishing site or otherwise screw up, it doesn’t just affect them. It affects all of county government.

That might be just a nuisance except for one thing: Ransomware. Cyber bad guys have found that email clicks are an easy way to get into a system, hold its data hostage and demand cash to make the problem go away. That’s your cash, taxpayer cash.

And yet some folks — whose salaries also come from taxpayer dollars — are failing to step up and take the necessary training.

Again, we don’t get it.

So here’s what we plan to do.

Before the end of August, this newspaper will publish all the names of those county employees who have refused to do this minimal bit to protect data security. 

Those names are a matter of public record. We could publish them today, but we want to allow stragglers to step up and do the right thing.

Our goal is 100 percent, and we think county employees will do the right thing.

To be sure, there are questions of turf and authority to consider — there’s always been a tension between commissioners and other elected officials — but none of those make sense when you look at the larger picture.

So let’s do it. Let’s tighten up the county’s cybersecurity. A little education never hurt anybody. — J.R.