Stopping the COVID-19 pandemic depends on having the right supplies. Where can you get 5,000 masks?
Meet the team — from our King County Office of Emergency Management, Public Health – Seattle & King County and other county departments, as well as volunteers — tracking down thousands of masks and hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer to keep healthcare and frontline workers safe.
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Elliott Avenue modular pilot project opens to offer shelter beds and services to fight COVID-19
King County Executive Dow Constantine invited media to join in a tour of the newly completed Elliott Avenue enhanced shelter located at 551 Elliott Avenue West in Seattle that will offer safe housing and 24/7 onsite services for about 45 people currently experiencing homelessness. King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles who represents Council District 4 joined the tour, along with staff of Catholic Community Services, the contract service provider. The location is opening to further King County’s efforts around shelter de-intensification, reducing the density of existing congregate shelters that pose a danger for COVID infection.
“The homelessness crisis is not new in King County, but the advent of the coronavirus in our communities has intensified the struggle and challenge of living without shelter,” said Executive Constantine. “The Elliott Avenue modulars will offer safe housing, access to health and behavioral health care and other onsite services that will not only help residents keep safe now, but also begin to build a pathway out of homelessness.”
Read more in the official press release.
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Featured job: Staff Physician – Float Pool
Salary: $85.83 – $108.80 Hourly
Location: Multiple locations in King County, WA
Job Type: Appointed, Part-Time
Department: DPH – Public Health
Job Number: 2020-11440
Division: Community Health Services
Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
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New public health Directive requires masks or face coverings on transit
Crossposted from Metro Matters
Starting Monday, May 18 until further notice, passengers are required to wear masks or face coverings while riding transit, according to a new Public Health Directive from Dr. Jeff Duchin, Public Health – Seattle & King County health officer, along with King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan.
Additionally, Executive Dow Constantine has directed that all King County employees, including transit operators and crews, wear masks or face coverings when in public indoor spaces or outdoors when they are unable to social distance. Metro has already distributed two reusable, washable cloth face coverings to each of its 4,100 frontline employees, and similarly will provide cloth face coverings to its other employees, too.
Read more from Metro Matters
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Communication and Problem Solving Skills online training, May 19-21
This three-day, live/online training will address communication and problem-solving skills with the public and with co-workers. This class covers skills for effective listening, speaking, dealing with conflicts and with defensive behavior.
- Tuesday, May 19 – Thursday, May 21, from 9-11:30 a.m. Register here.
To accommodate the transition to online training, this class has been spread out over three days. Class is live via Zoom. For questions contact Learning and Development at KCTraining@kingcounty.gov.
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Your new Phish Alert Button
On Monday, May 18, King County employees received a County-approved email from do-not-reply@kingcounty.gov about the new Phish Alert Button that has been added to Outlook so you can quickly and easily report suspicious emails that may be phishing attacks.
The email also advised you that have been enrolled in “Phish Alert Button” training. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you complete the training to help keep King County safe and defend against cyber-attacks. Most employees received the email Monday morning (see image below).
How will it work? All Outlook email users will get a new button called Report Phishing placed on the ribbon bar of their Outlook screen that they can click when confronted with a suspicious email.
If you’re working from home you’ll need to connect via VPN for the button to be installed on your computer. Here’s how to easily connect via VPN.
You’ll also get an email invitation to learn more about how the Report Phishing button works, and what type of emails to report with the new button. That email will come from the following address: “King County <do-not-reply@kingcounty.gov>” A link will be provided in the email for you to securely access the training site.
The username to access the training is your email address. Your password will be the same one you use for your email.
Here’s what the button looks like in the top ribbon:
When do I use it? Click the Report Phishing button anytime you believe the email you received is a phishing email or a potentially dangerous email. These reports will be forwarded to the KCIT security team for analysis.
The Report Phishing button should only be used to report emails you believe have malicious intent. If you receive spam or marketing emails, do not use the Report Phishing button. You can simply delete those emails. A side note: You can also add the sender or sender’s domain to the blocked list on your Outlook email.
How do I use it? When you click on the Report Phishing button, a prompt will ask you if you’re sure you want to report the email as a phishing email. If you select yes, the email will be sent to the KCIT security team, and the email will be deleted from your inbox. You’ll receive a pop-up message saying “Thank you for reporting this email to the security team. No more action is required.” If you accidently report a legitimate email as a phishing email, you can find the original item in the deleted items folder in your Outlook.
Why should I use it? King County, like other governments, constantly fights off cyberattacks. Many attackers seek usernames and passwords so they can attack private bank accounts or business government networks to install ransomware, steal data or cause outages. Reporting suspicious emails keeps King County data and files more secure. The faster our security specialists know of phishing attacks, the quicker we can defend against them. You’re an important part of the process of keeping King County safe from cybercriminals.
Should I create a helpdesk ticket? You can if you would like to, but it’s not required. Using the Report Phishing button will send the email you report straight to our security team and Microsoft.
Thank you for your cooperation. For questions, contact the KCIT Help Desk at 206-263-4357 or submit a Help Desk ticket.
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Featured job: Administrative Specialist II – Public Health Laboratory
Salary: $22.74 – $28.82 Hourly
Location: Seattle, WA
Job Type: Special Duty Assignment or Term Limited Temp (TLT)
Department: DPH – Public Health
Job Number: 2020AB11638
Division: Prevention
Closing: 5/15/2020 11:59 PM Pacific
Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
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Celebrating successful elections and honoring employees for Administrative Professionals Day
King County Elections held a virtual celebration to recognize the completion of four elections in February and March, as well as honor Administrative Professionals Day. Elections recognized the value of their administrative professionals pictured here: Robin Blake, Liwen (Lulu) Liu, and Alvin Dela Cruz.
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King County phishing test to protect data and files
Every day, cybercriminal make phishing attempts against King County employees. Some are successful. To help protect critical data and files, KCIT cybersecurity recently sent out simulated emails recently to test our defenses.
KCIT sent 14,523 simulated phishing emails out. Each employee received one simulated phishing email. Of those, 2,546 emails (17.5%) were opened, and 82.5% were not opened.
Of those 2,546 opened emails:
- 1,349 employees (53.1%) took an unsafe cyber action, while 46.9% did the right thing and took no unsafe actions.
- 495 employees (3.4%) clicked on a link in the email they received, and 96.6% did not.
- 126 employees (.9%) replied to the phishing email, and 99.1% did not reply.
- 549 employees (3.8%) opened the attachment, and 96.2% did not open the attachment.
- 179 employees (1.2%) provided their security credentials, and 98.8% did not provide their login/password credentials.
Statistically, governmental groups without any cybersecurity training typically show a percentage of 26% unsafe actions in such tests. After one year of cybersecurity training, the overall percentage rate drops to about 6%.
King County’s overall percentage of users who fell for this simulated attack was 9.3%. The goal is to reduce this number to less than 6% through training and simulations. Thank you for your cooperation, and let’s keep up the good work. For questions, contact the KCIT Help Desk at 206-263-4357 or submit a Help Desk ticket.
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New directive for employees to wear cloth face masks
Effective Wednesday, May 13, all Executive Branch employees must wear face coverings over their noses and mouths if they are likely to be in contact with another individual and distancing of six feet is not able to be maintained, per the Public Health Directive from the Seattle & King County Public Health Officer. The only exceptions are:
- Any individual who has a physical disability that prevents easily wearing or removing a face covering;
- Any individual who is deaf and uses facial and mouth movements as part of communication;
- Any individual who has been advised by a medical professional that wearing a face covering may pose a risk to that individual health related reasons;
- Any individual who has trouble breathing or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the face covering without assistance.
This applies to Executive Branch employees. Employees in other branches of County government (definitions below) will receive guidance from their leaders.
Because it is still important to conserve medical-grade or N95 respirators for health care workers, unless a particular health reason requires it, individuals should use county provided cloth masks or substantially similar masks in the workplace. Cloth face masks must be worn properly in order to avoid contaminating the hands or face of the user. Here is how to properly wear a mask.
The County has cloth masks available for all employees to use in the workplace. Individuals should use County-provided cloth masks or their own substantially similar cloth masks in the workplace. Face coverings must be workplace-appropriate and cannot feature political or offensive images or content.
We acknowledge that some individuals who are members of communities historically and currently discriminated against may experience anxiety and fear about wearing face coverings. King County is committed to maintaining a respectful, productive, inclusive, and equitable workplace, and discrimination and other conduct that is inconsistent with that will not be tolerated. In this unprecedented time, when individuals can be infected and contagious before or without symptoms, and evidence suggests a significant number of infections may be transmitted this way, face coverings must be worn to prevent inadvertently spreading COVID-19 while interacting with others. If employees will be in close contact with the public and have concerns about being discriminated against while wearing face coverings, they should speak to their HR Manager about ways to clearly identify them as a King County employee. However, even with identification, we fully acknowledge that the anxiety and fear for members of historically and currently discriminated against communities are real and these steps alone cannot change that. We, through your supervisor or HR Manager, are committed to working with you to making sure that everyone stays healthy and safe.
Executive Branch departments: Department of Assessments, Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, Department of Executive Services, Department of Community and Human Services, Department of Human Resources, Department of Judicial Administration, Department of Local Services, Department of Metro Transit, Department of Natural Resources and Park, Department of Public Defense, Department of Public Health, Executive Department, King County Elections, King County Sheriff’s Office (The King County Sheriff’s Office is administered by the King County Sheriff).
Other branches of County government: District Court, King County Council, Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Superior Court.
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