{"id":9280,"date":"2022-02-03T08:12:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=9280"},"modified":"2022-02-03T08:12:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:12:29","slug":"when-a-city-gets-hacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2022\/02\/03\/when-a-city-gets-hacked\/","title":{"rendered":"When a City Gets Hacked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alumnus Barry Hensley Leads the Defense Against Cyber Attacks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2018 when the Atlanta city government was targeted by a disastrous ransomware attack, the city turned to a Georgia Southern alumnus for help. Cybersecurity expert and retired Army Col. Barry Hensley (\u201886), acted as incident commander, briefing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her staff twice a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not usually his day job. As the chief threat intelligence officer and member of the executive leadership team for Atlanta-based Secureworks, Hensley often advises Fortune 500 companies on how to prepare for and recover from major cybersecurity breaches. Hensley said incident commander is a \u201csurge role\u201d that he performs from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was blessed to have the latitude to roll up my sleeves and be the incident commander on probably a dozen of the 1,400 incidence response engagements we had last year,\u201d
said Hensley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From College to Army life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hensley began his college career at Georgia Southern because it was \u201ca respected institution close to home in Liberty County.\u201d That was important to him because his high school sweetheart, Angie, was a year behind him. She later joined him at Georgia Southern and became his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final deciding factor was Hensley\u2019s receipt of a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. He was interested in the nascent information systems industry and at the same time wanted a balanced background from a business perspective. So, the Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information systems was a natural fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy wife would say I spent most of my time at Georgia Southern in the library studying, as my GPA and ROTC performance had a lot to do with my ability to be selected for active duty as a commissioned officer and my branch selection of choice,\u201d said Hensley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hensley\u2019s junior year, he attended Advanced Camp, during which ROTC cadets are assessed for potential to serve as commissioned officers. In a competition among over 2,000 cadets at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Hensley proved a winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was 15th out of the thousands that participated and I was number one in the cadets from Georgia Southern,\u201d explained Hensley. \u201cThat allowed me to be chosen as cadet battalion commander and my branch of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hensley’s choice was as a signal officer in the Signal Corps, a set of soldiers and units who install, operate, maintain and defend both the tactical and strategic communications networks of the Army, including the cybersecurity mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pinnacle of my Army career was commanding the 57th Signal Battalion into Iraq,\u201d said Hensley. \u201cAnother notable assignment was DoD\u2019s Joint Task Force Global Network Operations which rolled into today\u2019s U.S. Cyber Command.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hensley feels that Georgia Southern professors gave him the foundation for a successful Army and private sector career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Tom Case, my long-time mentor, had a very patriotic view and took a special interest in ROTC cadets and their professional growth,\u201d said Hensley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case kept up with Hensley\u2019s career in the Army and while a course instructor at Fort Gordon, Georgia, U.S. Army Cyber Command headquarters, he included Hensley\u2019s bio in his slide deck to show that Hensley, from Georgia Southern, had advanced to the rank of colonel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was embarrassing,\u201d said Hensley with a laugh. \u201cFinally, after four years, I got him to take me off the slide deck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Transition to the Private Sector<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cybersecurity in the corporate world seems far distant from Hensley\u2019s more than 24-year career in the U.S. Army. It was quite a change from the command structure, something Hensley had to face in his transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to his command in the Signal Corps though, Hensley leads some of the nation\u2019s top security experts who identify and analyze emerging cyber threats and develop rapid countermeasures in support of over 5,200 customers in 78 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2009 information technology
alumnus of the year, Hensley is proud of Georgia Southern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have pride in the fact that Georgia Southern continues to provide the foundational education that allows industry professionals to be successful today,\u201d said Hensley. \u201cAnd I am very blessed for not only the education system they provided, but also the lifelong friends and support that I’ve received throughout my career.\u201d
\u2014 Liz Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumnus Barry Hensley Leads the Defense Against Cyber Attacks In 2018 when the Atlanta city government was targeted by a disastrous ransomware attack, the city turned to a Georgia Southern alumnus for help. Cybersecurity expert and retired Army Col. Barry Hensley (\u201886), acted as incident commander, briefing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-9280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-winter-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}