County invests in cyber security improvements

Flathead County will spend close to $41,000 to upgrade the cyber security posture of its computer systems.

The county commissioners recently OK’d a capital improvement plan budget amendment request to cover the cost of the technology upgrade. Instead of using $36,750 that was budgeted as a capital improvement to replace the fire suppression system in the primary server room, the amendment will put that money toward cyber security instead, according to the budget amendment request presented to the commissioners by county Information Technology Director Mike Hausler.

“Currently that [fire suppression] system is in good working order and fully serviceable by our suppression vendor,” Hausler said in his request to the commissioners.

The county will add an additional $4,162 from the cash balance reserve to cover the full cyber security project cost.

“We go through a lot to make sure what we have is protected,” Hausler told the Daily Inter Lake.

Alluding to the cyber threats that targeted the Columbia Falls school district last September, Hausler said “for all of us in this business, it brought forth the risks we have, even in small town, Montana. We’re not immune by any stretch.”

Hausler said it behooves the county not to divulge specific details about the cyber security improvements planned because of security concerns.

“This should be a good, sweeping advancement of what we have internally,” he said. “It’s a never-ending job. It’s not something that will ever go away. We do what we can, and we have strict guidelines and rules of what our users should and shouldn’t do.”