Technicity GTA 2023: How municipalities prioritize data security>
Zero Tech
During an online cybersecurity session at this month’s Technicity GTA conference, speakers from the municipal sector made it clear that doing this is no different than the way for-profit companies do it.

“It is critical that the information security team spend time with business leaders to understand questions such as how long will it take to track down all of our engineering drawings, and how much productivity is lost if the ERP system is not available for a week?” Brent Kapp, IT Security and Risk Officer, told the City of Newmarket, Ontario.

It starts with collaboration with the city clerk’s office, with business owners and data custodians who can help identify data based on its classification, as agreed by Manish Agnihotri, Interim CISO for the City of Toronto. Then, he said, based on the classification of the data, information leaders can look at the security infrastructure and everything around it that supports the holding of that data.

That led moderator Richard Freeman, Ricoh’s Canadian portfolio manager for enterprise workflow solutions, to ask how municipalities can balance the security needs of users—both internal and taxpayers—with the need to protect data.

Kush Sharma, director of municipal modernization and partnerships for the Municipal Information Security Association of Ontario, reports that 92 percent of respondents to a recent survey of members said municipalities should focus first on critical infrastructure — such as the water system, public transportation, and resilience. Waste and voting system – ahead of what they called traditional IT.

Committee members said finding information is vital. The committee also touched on cyber insurance. Roland Chan, CISO at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that because the rates are based on what organizations do to protect themselves, his organization is making departments aware of the importance of good cybersecurity practices.

He advised any municipalities smaller than a city to consider self-insurance, or to group with other municipalities to fund themselves.

Finally, asking for advice on improving employee awareness of cybersecurity, Sharma urged Infosec leaders to stop thinking of themselves as technical experts.
Link: https://zeerotech.site/technicity-gta-2023-how-municipalities-prioritize-data-security/