Keeping IT systems up-to-date is vital for cities and municipalities along with other industries.
In a day and age where more and more information is being stored in system databases, the threat of a cyber attack and breach in company information could be devastating.
When it comes to the cyber safety of cities and municipalities, having current IT practices and secure databases is essential. Cities and municipalities handle valuable information that could affect and compromise the safety of residents if systems are breached by a cyber attacker.
While some think that cyber attacks are only common among large corporations, like Facebook or Google, city and municipality databases are equally targeted by cyber threats.
Only a few years ago, the city of Atlanta suffered a cyber attack that left citizens in fear and ended up costing city government a large sum to secure the breach. Cyber attacks are often made against cities and municipalities to threaten government officials, leak private information online, or to destroy or steal data.
As you can see, cybersecurity affects local governments, cities, and municipalities alike. With the rise in technology and internet use, no one is exempt from cyber threats anymore.
When Did Cyber Security Become an Issue?
Cybersecurity has been an issue ever since the inception of online data storage and unfortunately, the threat of cyberattacks isn’t going away any time soon.
While database security is constantly advancing, so are cyber thieves. Which is why cities and municipalities should invest in IT security services.
Every year there are headlines about cyber attacks made against well-known companies, and if big corporations aren’t able to completely protect themselves from cyber threats, how can smaller cities or municipalities rest easy?
These large corporations have the best of the best practices and precautions in place and still they suffer from cyber attacks, this is worrying to say the least as many city databases store confidential information.
Good Cyber Security Practices for Municipalities
Failing to exercise adequate precautions could be dangerous to city or municipality officials and because of this a lot is at stake.
Below is a list of good cybersecurity practices to prevent security breaches in your city or municipality.
At Emerald City Solutions, we make sure to give only the most current, applicable advice. As an IT company, we understand the importance of cybersecurity and know how to implement good practices that protect cities and municipalities against cyberattacks.
How Cities & Municipalities can Prevent Cyber Security Breaches
Here are 7 good practices to prevent cybersecurity breaches for cities and municipalities. These practices promote good cybersecurity and should be implemented by city and municipalities to protect employees as well as citizens.
1. Multi-factor Authentication
One of the most common and easily implemented ways to keep your municipality database safe is to use multi-factor authentication.
Everyone is aware by now that a seven character recycled password is very easy to hack. It’s essential to stress to city employees the importance of unique passwords and multi-factor authentication precautions.
2. Password Management for Cities & Municipalities
Poor password management also allows for breaches in cybersecurity. Emphasize the importance to city and municipality employees of memorizing their passwords rather than writing them down or storing them on electronics.
Passwords should always be made unique with special characters and numbers and should never be recycled, shared, or written down.
3. Stay Current with IT Updates
IT services and software are constantly evolving as they find more ways to protect the data of cities and municipalities.
But, as technology and cybersecurity advance, so do cyber threats. Because of this, keeping your database safe involves constant updates and staying current with all IT functions.
4. Properly Train Employees as Prevention
Cyber attackers are not the only ones that city and municipality authorities have to worry about. Often, it is employees within the government that pose the biggest cybersecurity risks.
With preventative training, cities and municipalities can decrease their risk of cyber threats exponentially.
It’s a good idea for city and municipality branches to have an IT company come and speak to their office about the importance of good cybersecurity practices and how each employee can do their part in keeping government databases safe.
5. Have a Cybersecurity Assessment from an IT Company
While you are having an IT team speak to your staff about the importance of good cybersecurity practices, have the team take the time to assess the current state of your cybersecurity.
Having the advice of a professional IT company will help city and municipality branches know if there are additional cybersecurity practices that they should put into place.
6. Have a Response Plan in the event of a Cyber Security Breach
In the event that databases are attacked or cybersecurity breached, city and municipality branches should have a response plan to mitigate cyber threats and database damage.
Having a strategy in place should a cyber attack occur is one of the best measures that city and municipality officials can take.
If you would like to establish a response plan but aren’t sure where to start, speak with an IT service about setting up a security response plan.
7. Safely Back-Up Data
As a preventative measure, city and municipality databases should always have backups of important information stored in a safe location.
Backing up data not only safeguards city governments against cyberattacks, but it also protects information against fire and other natural disasters.
Just ensure that backups are encrypted and stored safely.
Talk With an IT Service About Concerns
If you have concerns about cyber threats or need help educating your team about the importance of good cybersecurity practices, contact Emerald City Solutions today.
Our team of IT experts will help you update systems and begin other good practices that will protect your city or municipality against the threat of cyber attacks.
The safety of your local government and citizens is of the utmost importance to our team. We want to assure you that you are doing everything in your power to protect against cyberattacks.
Contact or call Emerald City Solutions today to have our IT team start helping you.
