From: Government Technology
In the wake of highly publicized data breaches and cybersecurity attacks, city officials are looking at historically underfunded municipal cyberdefense programs.
It’s Friday morning, and city staff can’t log in to their computer network. The Fire and Police Departments are now relying solely on radio communications, rather than their mobile data systems, to receive incident information. City staff is communicating via text with the few phone numbers they have in their personal smartphones, because the telephone and email systems are down. It’s a payday, and most employees rely on direct deposit to receive their paychecks, but no one received their electronic paycheck on Thursday night.
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Although this scenario is hypothetical, recent cybersecurity breaches in both the private and public sectors have captured the attention of local government agencies. Highly publicized data breaches and cybersecurity attacks raised awareness of these challenges, and consequently many city officials are looking at historically underfunded municipal cyberdefense programs.
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