News Photo by Mike Gonzalez District Health Department No. 4 board members listen to Denise Bryan, administrative health officer of the health department, as she talks about cybersecurity for the organization at the latest board meeting on Tuesday at the Atlanta office at 12480 State Street.

ALPENA — District Health Department No. 4 plans on focusing its attention on programs cybersecurity for its health officials by employing information technology (IT) specialists to the team.

Denise Bryan, administrative health officer of the health department, talked about this during the latest board meeting on Tuesday at the Atlanta office when she explained that this is something she’s wanted to focus on when finances and human resources are stable.

“There are three pillars,” Bryan said after the meeting. “Human resources, so having good staffing, competitive wages, good power, sound policies, and really working collegially for our public health mission. Then, the driver for every business is to have sustainable funding, which has been more stabilized recently… And then the third pillar was IT — we can really work more efficiently and effectively with programs that will collate the data and create those spreadsheets for data analysis.

“I added more software,” Bryan continued. “And with that, there are some of the vulnerabilities that come in the cybersecurity world that are a threat to any business that you know, globally. Now is the time to invest in employee training, gap analysis, and making sure all the cybersecurity protections are there, as well as the ability to onboard and offboard.”

Bryan said with concerns about phishing, scams, and the potential for viruses in different technological circumstances, along with the expansion of digital programs used in health care, the health department needs infrastructure protection.

According to Bryan, the health department is looking to fill two new positions: an IT supervisor and an IT manager.

“Emails that can come in and be loaded with Trojan viruses, and they look so legitimate,” Bryan said. “Commissioner (Brenda) Fournier talked about doing a monthly in-service, which is something I want to go into. We do have a good candidate, and we had other people interested, which means that we can likely get a supervisor and then the manager position filled, but we’re going to do it one step at a time and hopefully, by the next board meeting, we can meet the next IT person.”

The next board meeting takes place on May 21, starting at 10 a.m. in the Commissioner’s room in the Presque Isle Co. Building, located at 106 E. Huron Ave. in Rogers City.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The District Health Department No. 4 board on Tuesday also:

∫ moved business about a generator acquisition to the next board meeting.

∫ passed a motion that creates a plan to pay the liability down for the department’s Municipal Employees Retirement System.

∫ discussed different health department officials’ reports, which reviewed the bovine tuberculosis deer vaccination trial in Alpena, potentially contracting a social worker for the Hillman Wellness Program, and other topics.

∫ updated administration policy and procedures, along with environmental health policy and procedures.