Are you using Yahoo, Gmail, or another free, personal email for your official government business? Is your email address provided by your local telephone and Internet company?
OMAG's biggest source of cyber claims comes from the hacking of insecure, free, personal email services. We also get frequent questions from frustrated cities and towns if a clerk or staff member took their city email password with them and the city can't get it back. Finally, OMAG is always encouraging cities and towns to be compliant with the Oklahoma Open Records Act and give city and town staff the ability to keep their personal email accounts personal, and their work accounts separate.
Each city and town in Oklahoma qualifies for a free .GOV domain courtesy of the federal government. After OMAG helps you get it setup, we'd also like to pay for the first year of each of the following:
A professional, secure email account, with support provided by a third-party company
A simple, yet attractive, professional website that is easy for you to edit and update
email cybersecurity training and simulation
OMAG is using Microsoft's online services, called Microsoft 365 for email, and our website is hosted by a company called Squarespace. We also use a service that trains OMAG staff to be wary of spammers and scammers and to protect our organization from hackers. We're so sure about the effectiveness of these products, that we want to help some of our smallest members start their IT evolution by getting 50 towns that are still on Yahoo and similar services moved to a modern, professional solution that adheres to state standards, provides minimum cybersecurity, and protects these communities from hackers.
Year 2 costs for the city include nominal fees per user per year for email, an annual charge for website service, and an investment in cybersecurity training. OMAG strongly recommends that towns invest a little bit of money in doing IT right, so let us help you with the first year, free. Sign up today, by visiting www.dotgov.omag.org/. Apply for the grant by clicking "Sign up now!" If you have any questions, just let us know!
