The Rowan County Fiscal Court recently announced it received funding to bolster its cybersecurity through the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program.
Officials said local governments, especially in rural areas, can struggle to keep up with continuous technological advancements. Yet, cybersecurity is especially important in these areas to keep countywide data safe. The award, totaling more than $163,000, will be used to implement new technology, tools, and training to protect staff, resident, and county data.
Dylan Lambert is the Director of Operations with the Rowan County Fiscal Court. He said with the help of a new information technology coordinator and SLCGP funding, the court has updated old technology and systems.
“This grant also is going to fund about $58,000 of technology improvements at the jail that are much needed. That jail is five or six years old now, and that’s almost all you can ask out of a piece of technology these days before it becomes too dated to use or starts to give out on you,” said Lambert.
Other goals include an online occupational tax system for Rowan County residents, which Lambert said will likely be operational in the next couple of months.
“We’re very close to being able to process occupational tax payments online, which is something that we’ve never been able to do in Rowan County, and many of the counties that do collect occupational tax are not able to do,” said Lambert. “You wouldn’t think that it would be a Herculean effort like it has been, but it certainly has.”
Lambert said thanks to these grants, people in Rowan County can look forward to tighter county operations.
“You can sleep a little better knowing that the data of your county is secure and that the operations of the court won’t cease because of an outside actor, much in the way that other organizations that are hit with ransomware attacks or cybersecurity attacks often feel the pain of. I won’t say- it’s never impossible- but it’ll be a lot harder once we’re through,” said Lambert.
This grant is the second consecutive award the court has received from SLCGP. Lambert added the court hired a full-time informational technology coordinator with last year’s funding, and this year he has helped with these initiatives and much more.
More information is available online at rcky.us.