Municipal Cyberdefense: What Indiana City & Town Officials Need to Know about IT Security

municipal cyberdefense

Municipal cyberdefense programs aren’t really a topic you can read about on a daily basis. Mostly because of funding – or the lack of it. Naturally, it’s a huge problem that people and city officials need to take more seriously.

Municipality IT incorporates everything from police records to local authority IT systems. As you can imagine, a lot of sensible data is stored by these entities. With no or very little IT security in place, that data is highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Recent cybersecurity breaches have put this issue in the spotlight, thus capturing the attention of local government agencies. If you’re a city official, the following lines will provide some important aspects about municipal cyberdefense you need to know.

Cybersecurity Awareness Programs for Employees

municipal cyberdefense

It seems that one of the biggest threats to personal data is an untrained employee. Naturally, you can imagine that hackers always search for the weakest link before attacking.

And one of the most common breaches occurs when untrained employees click on spam email or phishing website that injects a Trojan in their system. A Trojan is a virus that may lie dormant for long periods of time and be activated by a malicious person or other triggers.

The solution is simple: trained employees. Local authorities can achieve this through cybersecurity awareness programs providing end-user IT security education.

Municipal Cyberdefense Audits and Managed Security

An IT security audit involves hiring a team of white-hat hackers. They will try to breach the system and report back with what they find. It is one of the best methods available to find out what municipal cyberdefense vulnerabilities certain local authorities have.

Granted, there is a risk a biannual audit might not be enough. Additionally, some authorities may not have the budget.

So another successful method of protecting public data involves hiring a managed security team. This means having IT security professionals operating 24/7 from a remote center.

LEAP Managed IT can provide such services to local authorities. Working with us gets you security policies and properly designed configurations. Also, you get implemented security and user policies to ensure your network is secured from the inside out. Contact us to find out more.

Local Authorities Should Consider Managed IT Services in the Cloud

municipal cyberdefense

Moving operations and storage to the cloud has countless extra benefits. Granted, it might be easier for a business than a local authority, but it’s not impossible.

Probably the most compelling argument for local authorities’ cloud-hosted IT systems is the cost. You only pay a monthly fee for the computing power needed. If you need more, you can always ask and the cost will only go up by a small amount.

Also, cloud computing is much more secure than local IT systems. This happens because managed IT services use specialized data centers that have on-site 24/7 human security.

Last but not least, local authorities also get access to professional and efficient support. This turns IT security from a stressful operation into the provider’s problem.

At LEAP Managed IT, we take a keen interest in providing the latest technological innovation to our clients. Our goal is to make technology work for you, not against you. Working with us gets you a proactive, can-do attitude.

Get in touch with us if you’d like to know more about the municipal cyberdefense services we offer.

Patrycja Thomas

Author: Patrycja Thomas

Fortune 500 sales and marketing veteran dedicated to helping small businesses change the world with technology.