SALT LAKE COUNTY — Former educator Sheri Harris didn’t realize she was a part of the Granite School District employees and students whose personal information was compromised after a security breach, until she saw an old coworker’s Facebook post about it last Tuesday.
“As a retiree and a former employee, I received no notification whatsoever,” said Harris, a former education specialist at Wilson Elementary School. “I’m very disappointed in Granite. A company of that size isn’t watching out for their former employees who gave them so many years of hard work and loyalty. You know, we’ve just been pushed aside.”
Harris, a Granite School District employee for 10 years, retired last May. She said the security breach forced her to cancel her main bank account that she’s had for 20 years. It’s an account that she uses to pay major bills.
“It’s time-consuming, it’s complicated,” she said. “It’ll probably take weeks to get everything cleared up that goes through that account. It’s very irritating and anxiety-producing.”
Ricky Ratzlaff, a manager at the computer security service Arctic Wolf, suggests that people start thinking about their “cyber hygiene.”
“You’re going to establish backups. You’re going to teach people who are using your systems to not click on phishing links. Don’t click on things you’re not sure about. Don’t try to run unauthorized software,” Ratzlaff said.
Ratzlaff suggests using VirusTotal.com and URLScan.IO to analyze unknown URLs.
“Be a little more skeptical about emails you receive even text messages you receive. When you search in a search engine for something, don’t simply trust the first thing that comes up. Be a little bit more willing to examine stuff carefully,” he said. “Even just that could save a lot of trouble.”
