Joel Weever works for DIT’s Office of Enterprise Security.  He is an Incident Management Specialist, meaning he is responsible for coordinating DIT’s response to any type of IT security breach or intrusion.  Such intrusions include things like computer viruses, worms, or web defacement attacks.  Though Joel is a coordinator, he says everyone in “The Bat Cave” (as his work area is affectionately called) works together to resolve issues.  Joel pointed out that they all have the same goal – to protect the state’s resources and equipment.

Having worked for the state for almost 8 years, Joel has seen his share of crazy things in IT.  Two things he worked hard on were the response to the blackout and virus attacks last August. 

In addition to major incidents like the blackout or Blaster virus, Joel is responsible for a lot of day-to-day monitoring.  He and his co-workers are constantly monitoring the state system, “hunting and pecking,” as he put it, for possible security threats.  They certainly stay busy doing so!  As of April, 2004, on a typical day, the state faces 20,434 e-mail virus threats, 45,000 scans or probe attempts – which means that external users are scanning the network for unauthorized access, 4100 web defacement attempts and about 15 computer hijack attempts.  Joel estimates the amount of viruses has increased over 500% in the last year or so.  Though these statistics sound daunting, Joel was quick to point out that Michigan has an excellent IT Security team.  They are well regarded on the national scene.

Speaking of the national scene, Joel recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for the Multi-State ISAC (Information Sharing Analysis Center) meeting.  At the meeting, Michigan and other states discussed ways they can share information and help each other to build strong, safe infrastructures.  Joel also worked on the award-winning Secure Michigan Initiative, writing the Incident Management section.

Joel graduated from Michigan State with a degree in Geography and began his career with the State in the Center for Geographic Information.  He later moved to Enterprise Security when it was still with DMB and is now a DIT employee.  Since the transition to DIT, he says the scope and responsibility of his job has changed quite a bit.  “We used to make recommendations,” Joel said, “but now it’s a bit more than that.”  Because the Office of Enterprise Security is responsible for securing the entire state network, much more coordination between departments is necessary.

The department wishes to thank Joel for his dedication.  Every time you start-up your virus-free computer, think of Joel and his co-workers!