Cyber Attacks on Municipalities

A whitepaper published by KnowBe4 entitled The Economic Impact of Cyber Attacks on Municipalities, explains that 53.2% of attacks in State Government are targeted at Cities and Local Schools. Data Privacy and Cybersecurity attorneys at McAfee & Taft suggest that cyber security is a business issue, not simply a technical issue. Municipalities must focus on three areas:

People > Process > Technology.

People

Does your city have

  • a designated team for cybersecurity events?

  • an internal or external technology team? Or a hybrid team of both?

    • Internal- a designated employee, full or part-time, for cybersecurity?

    • External- Who is the point of contact for cybersecurity events?

Process

Does your city have

  • an incident response plan?

  • a business continuity & disaster recovery plan?

  • a framework or process for your data lifecycle?

  • a process for assessing cyber risks?

  • a cybersecurity training plan?

Technology

Does your city have

  • a platform use for Office Management? Is it a cloud or local version?

  • security and privacy tools are enabled on this platform?

  • multi-factor authentication for all your technology systems?

  • an inventory of all computers and technology on our network and systems?

  • an inventory of all applications and software?

Visit McAfee & Taft’s website at: mcafeetaft.com For more information about data privacy and cybersecurity.

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