LYNNFIELD – The Town has been awarded a state-funded Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness grant to train town employees in identifying and avoiding cyberthreats.
“With the increasing reports of cyber-criminals targeting municipalities, this grant will help ensure Lynnfield residents that the town is fully prepared for any attempts to gain access to town funds and records,” said Select Board Chair Phil Crawford. “The Town of Lynnfield is very appreciative of this initiative.”
This program will provide end-user training, evaluation, and threat simulation to improve their cybersecurity readiness and ability to detect and avoid cyberthreats. Lynnfield’s grant will provide training for 140 municipal employees.
“This state grant will allow Lynnfield, which already has in place procedures and policies to thwart cyberattacks, to train those working with town financial records, police records, personnel records and student records to keep up with the more sophisticated forms of cybersecurity threats that have plagued municipalities and other entities,” said Assistant Town Administrator Robert Curtin.
Massachusetts House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) said that municipalities and school districts are facing a constant threat from ransomware, phishing attempts and other malicious cyberattacks.
“It is important to be able to not only identify and respond to these attacks, but also to take proactive steps to prevent them,” said Jones. “Lynnfield’s grant will provide town employees with the critical training needed to protect sensitive information contained in the town’s databases from being compromised.”
“Cyberattacks are a rapidly growing threat facing our society and if successful, they can have extremely detrimental impacts on local governments and the residents that they serve,” said State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn). “This grant is a great step to ensure that we are doing all we can to prepare for and defend against these potential attacks.”
Program participants begin their training with an initial cyber strength assessment to measure baseline cybersecurity awareness. Following the initial assessments, periodic evaluations consisting of training modules and simulated phishing email campaigns help participants build good cyber hygiene habits to increase their awareness of deceptive techniques used by bad actors to gain unauthorized access to government systems. At the end of the program, participants complete a final cyber strength assessment to measure their progress.
The Commonwealth offers the program free of cost to organizations, which are further supported with quarterly threat briefings and weekly newsletters with cybersecurity best practices and program updates.
Municipal information technology officials also receive monthly summary progress reports detailing the number of employees that inadvertently clicked on malicious links contained in the simulated phishing emails, offering important visibility of the threat landscape.
Administered by the Office of Municipal and School Technology (OMST) within the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS), the 2023 Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program (MCAGP) is supported by $250,000 in capital funds authorized by the Legislature as part of a 2020 general government infrastructure bond bill.
Now in its fourth year, the MCAGP is open to Massachusetts cities, towns, public school districts, libraries, police and fire departments, water districts, planning commissions, municipally-run utility departments, airports, housing authorities, and the Massachusetts Public Pension Systems. Grant applicants must demonstrate support from top leadership and a commitment that participating employees will complete the training exercises offered throughout the duration of the program.
Overall, the 2023 program will provide more than 50,000 employees from 177 municipalities and public school districts across the Commonwealth with critical cybersecurity training.
“Our administration is committed to providing communities across Massachusetts with the resources they need to defend their technology against potential cyber threats,” said Gov. Maura Healey. “We are thrilled to see municipal leaders from across the Commonwealth prioritize cybersecurity by providing this vital training to their employees. Our administration will continue to advocate for resources to further support our partners in municipal government to meet the needs of the constituents they serve.”
“Building good cybersecurity habits doesn’t require a technical background and is important for all employees in the digital era,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. “The Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program is an important resource for the Commonwealth’s municipalities, is provided at no cost, and is crafted to fit into the hectic and busy schedules that municipal officials, teachers, and administrative staff have.”
