Editor's Note: A need exists within environmental health agencies to increase their capacity to perform in an environment of diminishing resources. With limited resources and increasing demands, we need to seek new approaches to the business of environmental health. Acutely aware of these challenges, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) has initiated a partnership with Accela called Building Capacity--a joint effort to educate, reinforce, and build upon successes within the profession using technology to improve efficiency and extend the impact of environmental health agencies.

The Journal is pleased to publish this column from Accela that will provide readers with insight into the Building Capacity initiative, as well as be a conduit for fostering the capacity building of environmental health agencies across the country. The conclusions of this column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of NEHA.

Darryl Booth is the general manager of environmental health at Accela and has been monitoring regulatory and data tracking needs of agencies across the U.S. for almost 20 years. He serves as technical advisor to NEHA's informatics and technology section.

Phishing, distributed denial-of-service, and ransomware. These are three modes of criminal attack that can devastate an organization. Girding your health department for these and related attacks is as important as preparing for any other disaster--it is an element of emergency preparedness.

Phishing

Phishing is a deceitful attempt to obtain information (e.g., account details) by e-mail, text, or the Internet designed to impersonate a legitimate request. So, what appears to be an e-mail from the county help desk, for example, asking to confirm your contact information is, in fact, an enticement to give up your username and password to a third party.

The oddly spelled word phishing comes from the hacker propensity to...