Leaders heed concerns as Kosciusko County addresses security issues

By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw

WARSAW —  Security turned out to be a consistent theme Thursday night at the Kosciusko County Council meeting.

 In some matters, officials said they’re taking steps that should have been done already. 

Emergency Management Director Ed Rock said the county will pursue two grants regarding security issues.

One will address further securing the county’s server rooms – which he said are not as secure as they should be.

“If we don’t this it, it’s going to come back and bit us — plain and simple,” Rock said.

The other will involve establishing closed-circuit television cameras around the exterior of the county courthouse.

Council also received an update on plans to move forward with the training of county employees on email scams.

County Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer said they’ll rely on KnowBe4 – a company viewed as a leader in the industry.

State officials have recommended the move and are providing access to the training without a cost, according to Momeyer.

The new effort comes after the county fell victim IN 2022 to an email phishing scam that cost the county $300,000.

That money was never recovered and nobody was ever charged with the theft.

The training and other efforts are the latest round of changes following the incident.

“It certainly factored into it,” Momeyer said. “We actually wanted to do this long before that, but at that point, it was not free to the county and it was decided at that time not a viable option for us.”

The changes also include updates to the county employee handbook.