County internet security will be more expensive

The never ending requirement to maintain, then continually improve, security of Adams County’s governmental computer and information network will be getting more costly.

That was the bottom line of a lengthy report given to the county commissioners at their March 26 meeting by Mike Brown, the county’s information technology director. He operates a system with just three others on his staff that covers every government in the county except Berne, although the Berne Police Department is connected.

Because of the almost 100% inclusivity of entities here, Brown said Adams County is one of the few among Indiana’s 92 counties to be so well linked.

He first gave the good news that the goal of transferring all local governmental computers to the single county website – AdamsCounty.IN.gov – is moving ahead very well. He noted later that the switch to the “.gov” designation is a national imperative in every part of the United States during a time of unceasing attacks and attempted attacks by individuals, organizations, nations, etc. around the world on a 24/7 basis.

Brown revealed that the state Department of Homeland Security and Indiana’s Office of Technology recently sent him and his staff a 92-page questionnaire about cybersecurity that took a number of days to complete, Some questions could be answered with just a paragraph, he said, but others required a full page for a response. Later, additional questions were received and answered.

Brown said the biggest weakness in the county’s cyber system before the current round of improvements was a lack of “documentation,” since no one on the staff was doing that.

The biggest part of his report was about the changes in Microsoft licensing for security purposes, which is designed to eliminate what Brown called “real pain points,” such as use of passwords. In the past, a password worked for everyone who worked in one building and used one system, but after the COVID pandemic caused hundreds of millions of people worldwide to begin working from home, the use of passwords exploded exponentially, which opened up a great many individual computers to all sorts of hack attacks, etc.

At present, said Brown, e-mails are kept in “the cloud,” which means floating amid the internet.

When teams of people use computers, those are also in “the cloud,” which is why “cloud licensing” is the latest trend for higher security by Microsoft as it moves away swiftly from current “volume licensing,” which is based on how many people are using computers and how many devices are in use.

Brown said the county now pays Microsoft $73,000 per year for security services, without passwords and team usage, then said the three options that Microsoft is offering are these, employing the three simple code words Brown used to describe them:

Good – this would cost $13,000 above the $73,000, making a total of $86,000 per year.

Better – this would cost almost $96,000, which includes the $73,000. He said around 225 people in county governments would use this as members of teams, but there would be no help for passwords.

Best – this would cost almost $116,000, which includes the $73,000 and would have a deadline of 2027 to sign up.

In the discussion, commissioner Steve Bailey, who was, ironically, participating on the internet while in Florida, said to go for the $116,000 offer by saying, “Bite the bullet and go all the way.”

Brown pointed out that he had $100,000 in his budget specifically for such expenses, so he’d only need another $16,000 to get that “best” program.

He also said Microsoft has a payment deadline in April, so he’ll seek a vote from the commissioners at their April 2 meeting.

Brown also said he met in February with the Geneva Town Council about its idea to erect a communications tower beside Town Hall to improve radio links to all the town’s services: police, fire, street, water, and wastewater.