When Atlanta’s government was hit with a crippling ransomware attackin March that took out dozens of city systems, Army Col. Eric Toler was focused on the war in Afghanistan. But Toler, who retired from the Army last month, says he’ll be reading up on the cyberattack on Atlanta as he starts his new position as the first executive director of the new Georgia Cyber Center, a new $100 million state facility dedicated to cybersecurity businesses and educational facilities.
Toler, who started at the Cyber Center on Monday, spent most of his 27-year military career building up the Army’s cyberwarfare capabilities, including a stint as the commander of the National Security Agency’s outpost at Fort Gordon in Augusta, not far from the campus of Augusta University, where the Georgia Cyber Center recently opened.