Information Systems Director Troy Anderton said switching to a .gov address provides a security advantage.
“Only the federal government can issue .gov domains, so you can’t just go out and buy one,” he said.
He noted a 15% rise in government impersonation attempts, including cybersquatting, where criminals use identical or similar website addresses to mislead users. A .gov domain makes that practice “very difficult to do,” he said.
Accepting the federal grant also brings several built-in security requirements, including mandatory encryption, HTTPS preloading, DNS monitoring and secure email standards.
Although the change comes months after a cyber incident disrupted Middletown systems in August 2025, Anderton said the migration is not a response to that event.
“This was on our roadmap,” he said. “We have been waiting for the grant awards to be enough to warrant the change and actually cover the costs.”
Eligible expenses in the grant include domain and email migration, website updates, IT consulting, staff training and public outreach. Anderton said the city may also need to update police cruisers that display the current website address and reprint staff business cards.
“We need to tell people about it, it’s something that they need to know,” Anderton said. “We’re here, we’re back and we’re secure as we can be and that anybody can be by moving to that .gov domain.”
The migration will begin immediately. Public-facing services will remain accessible through both the .org and .gov domains until 2027, when the city expects to fully retire cityofmiddletown.org.
The final .gov domain name has not yet been selected, but it must include “OH,” since 19 places in the United States share the name Middletown.
City council voted 5–0 to approve applying for and accepting the grant. The application is due March 13.
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