EASTHAMPTON — A city employee received an email that appeared to be from a supervisor requesting that a deposit be made. As it turns out, the email was sent from a gmail address rather than a city email account. Had the employee not taken a second to pause and consider the legitimacy of the email, the city could have opened itself up to a cyberattack.
Karin Moyano Camihort, Easthampton information technology department director, said the employee’s mindful response to the email is due to some critical training that the municipal employees have received. This type of online scam is called phishing and targets people by sending an email that appears to be from a familiar source. The scams often ask consumers to provide personal identifying information.
“The employee almost followed through with the email’s requests, because it looked very real,” said Moyano Camihort. “But (they) stopped to check, which is part of their training that’s designed to help better detect and avoid cyberthreats.”
Employees have received training as part of a grant from the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Program. The Baker-Polito administration announced in February 2021 that Easthampton was among the recipients of a grant that allowed the city to train 70 employees. And more recently, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said the city had been notified that Easthampton had been awarded a grant for a second year in a row.
With the grant, the city is provided with licenses for end-user…
