New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communication Integration Cell (NJCCIC) Director Michael Geraghty (pictured left) recently interviewed with StateTech Magazine to discuss how organizations benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

Geraghty covered a range of cybersecurity issues, such as malware, and using AI to summarize lengthy technical reports from thousands of words from various analytical tools to condensed key facts and information.

"The days of using signatures that are very brittle to detect malware or phishing emails are over. Today, we have endpoint detection and response, which is behavior-based and deals with a lot of machine learning AI models," said Geraghty, who also serves as New Jersey's State Chief Information Security Officer.

Geraghty also spoke about the talent needed. While AI brings an abundance of speed and assistance to tasks and data, engineers are still required. "Everything is connected to the internet … to get that data, you need the engineering talent to make sense of it and build learning models," noted Geraghty. Even without experienced workers, he said government AI implementation could still work around budgets, refocus employee attention, and improve around-the-clock resilience.

Email forwarding, especially to external non-work accounts, presents organizations with serious privacy and security risks.

The NJCCIC has received multiple reports of employees creating automatic forwarding rules or manually forwarding work emails to personal accounts, potentially exposing sensitive information such as personally identifiable information, financial data, or trade secrets. Threat actors can leverage compromised external accounts to gain access to an organization's environment and establish their own email forwarding rules to exfiltrate data. Moreover, forwarding emails can interfere with spam filters and authentication protocols.

Organizations typically establish policies that prohibit transmitting or storing sensitive information via unauthorized channels, including personal email accounts, social media, or file-sharing platforms. Violating these policies may result in disciplinary actions, fines, or termination.

The NJCCIC recommends that employees familiarize themselves with their organization's email usage policies, avoid creating mailbox forwarding rules, and remove any that exist. Suspicious rules should be reported to information technology departments immediately. For more information, view the NJCCIC's latest alerts and advisories.

NJOHSP anticipates the release of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the 2025 federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). The NOFO will include eligibility and application requirements for the program.

In anticipation of the upcoming open application period, nonprofit organizations should obtain a Unique Entity Identifier through SAM.gov, and ensure their vulnerability risk assessments are current, including required photographs of the areas for which security enhancements are being pursued.

For more information, view NJOHSP's grants web page.

NJOHSP invites talented individuals to apply for a Counter-Threat Watch Specialist position in its Intelligence Management Bureau and make a meaningful impact across New Jersey in homeland security. Join our team and help to ensure the safety of residents and visitors in the Garden State. Requirements include a background in law enforcement/criminal justice, intelligence, or homeland security, as the job requires a basic understanding of the current threat environment. The position also requires strong writing and computer skills, the ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects in collaboration with various NJOHSP staff, the ability to adapt to a fluctuating workload, and the ability to work with individuals of all backgrounds. To apply, visit NJOHSP's careers web page.