Sumpter Township Board hears expert on cyber security

David Behen of SensCy addressed the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees at its April 25 workshop for 30 minutes, urging them to set up an educational program in cyber security for employees.
Trustee Tim Rush said he had heard Behen give a presentation to the Council of Western Wayne at its April 14 meeting in Belleville which “created quite a stir.” He said he invited Behen to address the Sumpter board.
Behen said he, former governor Rick Snyder, and retired Michigan State Police expert Dave Kelly put together SensCy (Sensible Cyber) nine months ago and they currently have 35 clients, with one in Wayne County.
Behen said he has been deep into cyber since 2011. He said he started out as Mattawan, MI, city manager and then held positions in Washtenaw County and the State of Michigan in Gov. Snyder’s administration, before becoming Global Chief Information Officer for La-Z-Boy.
He said cyber is like a chronic disease: “It’s always there.”
He said organizations are being hit by cyber a lot, including the University of Michigan Hospital and the Jackson County Intermediate School district.
He gave a list of “threat actors” with nation states at the top of the list. He said China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are working 24/7 to try to destruct the U.S. quality of life. He also listed organized crime, thrill seekers, and hackers.
He told tales of ransomware attacks, with an attack every 39 seconds around the world. When you click on a fishing email that looks legitimate it can lock up your network, he said. He said then they call and politely ask for cryptocurrency. If you don’t pay, they’ll steal all your data and sell it on the dark web and you are liable for this.
He urged Sumpter to provide repetitive education for employees so they can learn what fishing is and how to recognize it. He said Sumpter should also have an incident response plan and policies. He also recommended Cyber Security 101, a slide show that he teaches that shows how he protects his family.
Behen also said many people use the same password, but passwords should never be reused. He said passwords should be 9-14 characters long and complex with numbers and symbols and capitals and lower case letters. The critical passwords should be changed every 90 days. For those who say they can’t remember a lot of passwords, he said “Password Key” is easy to use.
He said the board members should talk to their community to demystify cyber and talk to their IT team. He said SensCy will provide a no-obligation scoring that highlights gaps they may have in their systems.
“It’s not real complicated,” he said. “We walk you through it. Evangelize. Be the model for Wayne County.” Trustee Rush said he would call him the next day.
In other business at the April 25 meeting, the board:
• Removed from the agenda the proposed description of the township manager position as written by Manager Anthony Burdick. Trustee Matthew Oddy said they are working on changing some of the words and they want it to be the best it can be and it’s not ready yet;
• Approved the resignation of fire fighter James Beaumont with regrets;
• Approved the hiring of Christopher Rose, 41, of Livonia as a full-time police officer, contingent upon him passing the required physical, psychological, and drug tests. Rose has been a sworn police officer since June 2022 with the Huron Clinton Metropolitan Authority. He earned his Associate in Crimal Justice from Schoolcraft College in November 2021. Rose has a PhD in Music Arts from Arizona State University, but was drawn to a career in law enforcement;
• Approved raising the deputy clerk and deputy treasurer’s pay, as approved, to coincide with the AFSCME union employees, retroactive, as recommended by Clerk Esthur Hurst;
• Heard resident Mary Ban ask how many voters are registered in Sumpter. Clerk Hurst said more than 9,000. Ban said she has the law on public notices and the Sumpter notices are not printed in a paper newspaper as required. She said residents said they cannot see legal notices. The Eagle publishes only on line and that is where the Sumpter notices are. She said the public is very upset with the board for not publishing the notices in the Independent where they can see them. Ban said this is disenfranchising the voters. Trustees Don LaPorte, Oddy, and Rush and Clerk Hurst spoke at length about how bad the Independent is and how the editor doesn’t tell the truth. Attorney Rob Young said the law on legals was changed, but didn’t explain further;
• Heard Deputy Clerk Karen Armatis report that a group of four people is working to beautify the township. They are putting in planters with special flowers. She said the memorial area at township hall has fallen into shambles and they are adding deceased township employees to the marker, trees will be relocated to Banotai Park, and they will sandblast the benches; and
• Heard Trustee LaPorte say he saw cones along Sumpter Road so he called the county to ask about it and got no reply to his question of what was going on. [Two days later the intersection of Sumpter and Willis roads was repaved.] Trustee LaPorte also said it’s time to renew Fire Chief Brown’s contract because he has had no raise for two years. He said he will work out something with attorney Young and bring it back to the board.