“We’re dealing with the big four,” Waldman said. “China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, those are the types of threats we’re encountering on a day-to-day basis,” Waldman said. “It is a continuous effort.“
Hamilton Executive Director of Strategy and Information Brandon Saurber said cyber security is “something that’s on council’s mind.”
“We work with them near daily,” he said of Secure Cyber. “They help us with threat detection, monitoring, risk assessments, employee training and incident response planning so that if we did have something we’ve got a plan in place to deal with that.”
Hamilton contracted with Secure Cyber in 2019 after a “minor incident,” Saurber said, and while nothing of any consequence or cost occurred, Hamilton officials didn’t want to take chances and contracted with the Moraine-based company.
While Hamilton has not had any incidents since, which are required to be reported after House Bill 96 was passed this summer, other communities have experienced them.
The city of Middletown is still reeling from the incident that happened in August that impacted things like staff emails, accessing records and phone records. The city spent $295,000 on tech upgrades after the incident, according to the Journal-News.
“Since the recent cybersecurity incident, we have taken action and will continue to take action to further enhance security to help prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future,” said city spokesman Clayton Castle.
He said Middletown has worked with a number of third-party companies to assist with the network system’s restoration. ongoing threat monitoring and other security services.
Last month, the Liberty Twp. Board of Trustees adopted the township’s cybersecurity policy which “formalized some of the lessons learned from the May cyber incident and provided a forward-looking approach to the Township’s security posture,” said Caroline McKinney, Liberty Twp. administrator.
“Since the May incident, the township has contracted with a local service provider to replace aging network infrastructure, has boosted email security through the use of cutting-edge AI software, and has continued to secure accounts through multifactor authentication,” she said, adding township officials meets quarterly with technology providers to discuss the township’s technology and emerging security trends.
West Chester Twp. had two cyber incidents this year, which spokesperson Brianna Wooten said was more akin to a two-phase intrusion.
“It was the same group, so it was more like a combined incident,” she said.
West Chester Twp. brought technology back online in phases, “and only bringing things back on what they could verify that would be safe to bring it back on.”
“Our IT team did a really phenomenal job of managing through the incident and getting us back up and running very quickly, ensuring that we were securing our network and preventing further breaches,” Wooten said.
House Bill 96, Ohio’s main operating budget bill for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, is a non-funded mandate requiring local governments to adopt a cyber security program, which includes a policy. The requirements are being required “to ensure availability, confidentiality and integrity,” according to the enacted bill.
“Cybersecurity is led from the top, and if that doesn’t occur, it’s very difficult to push cybersecurity up into an organization,” Waldman said. “It’s very difficult to do. Cybersecurity is not handled one time. It is a continuous effort.”
About the Author
