NNews-Sep-2026

24 September 2026 NJAMHAA’s IT Project Offers Expertise to Enhance Services with AI and Strengthen Cybersecurity The Cloud “The IT Project has also been concentrating more and more on getting client services to a 100% cloud solution, rather than having hardware —file servers —on site. This enhances agencies that have a hybrid model and greatly reinforces their disaster recovery because they’re not dependent on servers at locations that could suffer disasters,” Gordon explained. “If a building is destroyed by a flood, fire or other catastrophe, organizations would be stuck and not able to do essential work if they don’t have their files in the cloud. With the cloud, when disaster strikes, you can continue working almost immediately,” Hirsch said. He added that the cloud and other technology tools are much more user- friendly than they used to be. Many individuals are reluctant to use the cloud because of fear that their data would not be secure. “Visualize the cloud as all physical servers in a room outside your building. It’s the same as the Internet. Websites are hosted on servers in the cloud,” Hirsch explained. Though there is not asmuch control of data in the cloud, the benefits far outweigh any risk, according toHirsch. “The cloud is secure and reliable. There is security around the cloud—actually more secure than at providers’ agencies because the buildings that hold the servers have security firewalls, and each server can have its own firewall,” he said. Artificial Intelligence “I would’ve loved to have all these tools when I was on the clinical side,” Hirsch shared. In fact, he presented guidelines for effective and ethical use of AI for educators and clinicians during a meeting of NJAMHAA’s Education Council earlier this year. According to Gordon, “It’s an AI battle —good vs. bad. The good side of AI, as we’ve been focusing more on at our conferences and in webinars, is integrating the technology not only into EHRs, but also total agency needs. There are great tools agencies are starting to take advantage of and hopefully seeing positive results from that.” However, Gordon pointed out that AI has been presenting “a greater number of threats, which are alsomuch more sophisticated. Email threats can easily fool agency staff or anyone. It’s proliferating enormously,” he said. Fortunately, the evolution of AI is also resulting in more advanced tools to identify scams and, therefore, avoid falling for them and facing negative consequences on people, individual computers and systems, and organizations. “The use of AI can be beneficial, but it will need to be temperedwith security so that data can be protected,” Powis stressed. The IT Project will continue to offer training in all aspects of AI andways to protect data, individuals and agencies. For example, the team is encouraging all members tomove their data to the cloud for better protection if disaster strikes. continued frompage 2 3 continued on page 25 “ We’re always striving to increase services and value for our members.This includes promoting use of AI and getting people to move to the cloud. ” Steve Hirsch, LSW, MSW, MBA Vice President of IT, Human Resources and Administrative Services