Everyone thinks they are prepared for a cyberattack until they are attacked. As technology advances so have the skills of hackers and data miners who continue to become more sophisticated and malicious using a variety of hard to detect methods to gain access to your network. 2021 saw an incredible surge in cyberattacks across the country. With more employees working remotely and working outside their office networks, IT security is more important than ever.
Avenu’s team of experts, Roger Murphy and Mike Poth, shared decades of experience protecting jurisdictions in our recent webinar.
The webinar covered:
To learn how Avenu helps protects jurisdictions from cyber-attacks and modernize their IT infrastructure, check out our recent case study on our partnership with California’s Hayward Area Recreation and Park District.
Over the past two years, hackers have attacked local government agencies more than 184 times, disabling systems for hours and sometimes days. Recently, Atlanta and Baltimore were hit with ransomware attacks that crippled their online and administrative systems. More than a week after the cyberattacks, officials still are working through the setbacks caused by the shutdown of their digital processes and services.
As cities and counties become more dependent on their IT infrastructure to manage their data and daily operations, cybersecurity must be a priority that starts with the budgeting process.
How much discussion occurred last year about cybersecurity during your planning? Funding needs to cover not only hard costs, such as software, but also soft expenses, such as training. Here’s why.
Our cybersecurity experts point to software vulnerabilities as a leading cause of attacks like ransomware, and there are ongoing costs for the subscriptions and other services that distribute security updates and prevent attacks. However, it’s often the human factor that allows public agencies to fall victim to these attacks when an unsuspecting staff member clicks on a bad link or downloads a “malware” file.
At Avenu we have access to sensitive information for municipal clients across the nation, so we place a high priority on security. We have developed a series of best practices around our “detection, prevention and recovery” strategy to stay ahead of threats. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about it.