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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Shanita Thompson, Director of IT Operations
DATE: April 1, 2018
SUBJECT:
Requesting authorization to purchase a cyber security software for the City of Aurora Information Technology Division under the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance (IPA) Technology Solutions contract (130733) from CDW Government, Vernon Hills, Illinois.
PURPOSE:
Cyber security awareness is at an all-time high globally. Many companies and countries understand that cyber threat is one of the most serious economic challenges they face and economic prosperity depends on minimizing cyber threats. It's not a matter of if, but when and how cyber threats will occur. Verizon found public administration was the third most prevalent victim of data breaches of various types, accounting for 12 percent of all breaches behind financial organizations with 24 percent and health-care organizations with 15 percent. According to sources:
- 9 out of 10 had at least 1 breach in the past year
- Ransomware attacks soared from prior year 113%
- Increasing number of zero day attacks
- 32% of organizations report insider crimes are more costly or damaging than incidents caused by outsiders
More problematic, Verizon found, was the period of time public agencies took to discover they'd been breached. In 39 of 66 cases, or nearly 60 percent of the time, their discovery was years in the making. In nine of 66 cases, or nearly 14 percent of the time, discovery took months.
BACKGROUND:
In July 2017, Crowe Horwath cyber security practice performed a penetration test of the City of Aurora network. Crowe provided the following recommendations to improve the organization's cybersecurity posture:
1) Develop Cybersecurity Strategy:
The City of Aurora should conduct a cybersecurity maturity assessment of the organization in order to understand the organization's current capabilities and how that aligns with organizational expectations related to IT risk. A roadmap sho...
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