March 14, 2024 |
Photo – CrowdStrike logo – Courtesy Amazon.com
The state of Wyoming is providing municipalities with free cyber security software. Carbon County officials are also offering to help towns implement the new system.
The United States Department of Homeland Security has authorized $300 million to the Wyoming State and Local Cyber Security Grant Program. The federal money will be used to strengthen government computer systems across the state against hackers.
At Monday’s Medicine Bow town council meeting, County IT Director Matt Webster said using the federal grant money, the State Cyber Security Planning Committee is offering the digital security software, CrowdStrike, to municipalities.
Last year’s unauthorized incursion into the Rawlins city network prompted the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security to push all municipalities to reinforce their digital security systems.
IT Director Webster said CrowdStrike is one of two major companies in the cyber-security space that offers a strong defense against hackers. The other company is Palo Alto Networks. Both high-tech firms have seen their stock prices soar since last year. For instance, the price for Crowd Strike’s stock has jumped from around $150 per share in October to over $330 this week.
One of the beneficiaries of Crowd Strike’s strong stock performance is former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who bought approximately $1 million dollars’ worth of the stock in 2020.
At the Medicine Bow town council meeting, Webster said without a robust anti-virus program, all online computer systems will eventually become compromised.
Webster also attended the town council meeting in Baggs this week where he made a similar pitch about the security software.
Webster said having an effective firewall against outside incursions is extremely important for the entire county.
The IT director said the Board of Carbon County Commissioners authorized him to help towns set up the CrowdStrike software.
Webster said the State and Local Cyber Security Grant Program has been funded for the next two years, at least, and requires no financial commitment from municipalities.
A video on the Crowd Strike web site shows Jason Strohbehn, the State of Wyoming’s deputy cyber security officer, being featured in a polished, promotional video on the company’s website that the tout’s the state’s partnership with the company’s XDR platform. The XDR platform is used to protect 127 state agencies.
The video states the company’s Falcon Platform is able to add additional protection while being able to reduce the number of employees needed for cyber-security operations.
Carbon County’s IT director offered the Medicine Bow town council three options this week. The first choice, Webster said, is to accept the county’s offer to install and set up the CrowdStrike system. The town will not be required to pay anything for the software as long as the grant program lasts.
Webster said the council could deny his assistance and, instead, obtain the CrowdStrike software itself. The county IT director said in that scenario, the town would need to use its own information technology professional to install and maintain the security program.
Webster said the third option would be for the town to simply opt out of the grant program and not accept the CrowdStrike software.
If the town chooses to have him set up the anti-hacker system, Webster said the county would charge Medicine Bow $50 a year to maintain the software on every internet connected computer on the town’s official network.
Webster said CrowdStrike provides 24-hour monitoring through a dedicated call center. In the event of a potential hack, the county IT director said CrowdStrike would immediately let the appropriate person know.
Webster said the town only had until March 15th to decide if it wanted to participate in the State and Local Cyber Security Grant Program. The Medicine Bow town council voted to accept the CrowdStrike system and allow the county to handle implementation of the software.
Not every town council acknowledged the benefit of the state’s cyber security program. During Tuesday’s Hanna town council meeting, Mayor Jon Ostling said the CrowdStrike offer came about because someone hacked into the Rawlins water treatment plant last year. Mayor Ostling said he doesn’t believe that Hanna’s water treatment plant is in danger.
Public Works Director Larry Korkow said the water treatment plant’s SCADA, or the controlling and monitoring system, can be accessed online. Mayor Ostling said the town is still less vulnerable than Rawlins.
The mayor said the security software Hanna currently uses, Trellix, is trusted by high-level government agencies. Mayor Ostling said he was informed that no federal entities utilize the CrowdStrike system.
Mayor Ostling said CrowdStrike may negatively interfere with Trellix. The mayor said the town’s IT professional informed him that CrowdStrike can actually make the town’s computer network more vulnerable by exposing the entire system to intruders.
Mayor Ostling said Trellix does not create a map of the town’s computer system, but is, instead, strictly a firewall.
The mayor said he does not support changing the town’s cyber security program at this time. Mayor Ostling said he will revisit the topic in two years.
Mayor Ostling said the CrowdStrike offer sounds good, but he doesn’t think Hanna would benefit from installing the new software. The matter was not brought up for a vote by the Hanna Town Council.
The county’s IT director traveled to the Baggs Town Council meeting on Tuesday night and made a similar pitch, but no decision was made. Saratoga already agreed to inviting the CrowdStrike software into Town Hall.
