This month on “Wonderful Water,” join 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell for a conversation with OWASA Director of Information Technology Dan Przybyl about the role of cybersecurity and information protection in providing a public utility and crucial resource.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Cybersecurity is something that is important in our day-to-day lives, but also is critical to essential services continuing to function – like water and sewer services from OWASA.
“The nature of the cybersecurity threats evolved greatly over the years,” said Przybyl. “While malware has been around almost as long as computers, most people didn’t give much of a thought to cybersecurity before the internet came along and we all became so much more dependent on computers and the computer systems.”
With a career at OWASA as IT director spanning well over a decade, Przybyl has experienced changes in how security measures are implemented and perceived firsthand over the years.
“The level of sophistication has gotten a lot worse over the years since I started in 2007,” said Przybyl. “The threats are a lot more sophisticated that we have to protect ourselves against. Where cybersecurity started out as a minor part of my job, it’s now one of my top priorities at OWASA.”
Citing concerns of profit-motivated and politically-minded hacking alike, Przybyl also discusses the various common-sense approaches that can help protect against everyday security threats, as well as concerns from basic phishing scams to potential system-wide attacks — and what OWASA is doing to ensure its protection and security.
You can listen below to the full conversation below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does in our community.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents use roughly 7 million gallons of water a day, and “Wonderful Water” is a monthly conversation sponsored by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority highlighting its work to keep our community growing and water flowing.
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