{"id":187255,"date":"2026-02-13T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/cybersecurity-experts-urges-stronger-cyber-hygiene-after-cape-fear-scams\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:50:12","slug":"cybersecurity-experts-urges-stronger-cyber-hygiene-after-cape-fear-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/cybersecurity-experts-urges-stronger-cyber-hygiene-after-cape-fear-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity experts urges stronger ‘cyber hygiene’ after Cape Fear scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity experts urges stronger ‘cyber hygiene’ after Cape Fear scams<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wwaytv3.com\/cybersecurity-experts-urges-stronger-cyber-hygiene-after-cape-fear-scams\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-13 18:37:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.wwaytv3.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) \u2013 Late last year, two municipalities in the Cape Fear fell victim to cyber attacks losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. A cyber expert at UNCW spoke with WWAY to share why cyber criminals target municipalities.
\n\u201cHackers usually go for easy effort whatever is easy to get access to the systems,\u201d said Ulku Clark, cybersecurity and information systems professor at UNCW.
\nClark said municipalities like Pender County and Carolina Beach can sometimes become targets because they are seen as low hanging fruit.<\/p>\n

\t\t\u201cMunicipalities usually have low resources when it comes to cybersecurity and when the hackers or attackers identify a target with low resources that makes their job easy,\u201d Clark said.
\nPender County lost $650,000 after scammers impersonated the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority and request a change to banking details via email. County Manager, Colby Sawyer said the loss was preventable and that protocol wasn\u2019t followed when the scam occurred.
\n\u201cWere certainly being more suspicious of every email we receive, really trying to focus on the prevention side and we\u2019ve also done some additional training and we will continue to do some additional training,\u201d Sawyer said.
\nIn Carolina Beach, two cyberattacks led to the theft of $488,000. Town Manager, Bruce Oakley said they believe the hack occurred during a period when the town was updating its cybersecurity policies.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had audits, penetration tests, and various things over the years, but we do not have a regular program of them so,\u201d Oakley said.<\/p>\n

\t\tClark said municipalities can be particularly vulnerable because they often don\u2019t have th necessary budget or staffing to prevent cyber-attacks.
\n\u201cHaving a IT person or having a cyber security person usually having that staff line is not very easy to budget,\u201d Clark said.
\nClark said local governments should focus on basic \u201ccyber hygiene\u201d like strong passwords, regular employee training and multi-factor authentication. She said having cyber insurance can also be a critical safety net.
\n\u201cThe cyber insurance is a pretty nice way of making sure that you are on top of things,\u201d Clark said.
\nCaroline Beach Mayor said they hope to regain a portion of the lost funds through an insurance claim and what isn\u2019t recovered will come out of the town\u2019s general fund. Both cyber-related crimes in Pender County and Caroline Beach are still under investigation.\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity experts urges stronger ‘cyber hygiene’ after Cape Fear scams https:\/\/www.wwaytv3.com\/cybersecurity-experts-urges-stronger-cyber-hygiene-after-cape-fear-scams\/ Publish Date: 2026-02-13 18:37:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.wwaytv3.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m\/u\/cybersecurity-pic.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-187255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187257,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187255\/revisions\/187257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}