Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, September 5,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 7 A
Cyber security could cost county $80K a year
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
Dawson County IT
Director James Tolbert
presented to the Board
of Commissioners Aug.
23 his department’s rec
ommendations for cyber
security updates that
could potentially cost in
the area of $80,000 a
year.
A sophisticated ran-
somware attack at the
end of April crippled
many of the county’s
computer systems, and
as a result multiple
department heads pre
sented requests to move
to cloud-based systems
during budget hearings
this year. The board of
commissioners subse
quently asked Tolbert to
come up with a recom
mendation for updates to
the county’s systems to
increase cyber security.
“There is no state con
tract for cyber security,
so what we’ve done is a
lot of work, went out
and got some pricing on
cyber security for the
remainder of this year
and also for the 2019
budget,” Tolbert said.
Numbers that Tolbert
presented included
upgrade backups and
cloud recovery for
$2,076.27 a month for
FROM 1A
Officer
will continue to hold our
selves and our staff
accountable for their
36 months.
“It’s a lease to buy
sort of program, at the
end of 36 months you
will own it. After that
three years we will still
owe a $5,000 license fee
for the remainder of the
two years or you have an
option to buy it outright
at $66,645,” Tolbert
said.
Tolbert also presented
prices for antivirus and
threat monitoring from
C a r v i r Security
($2,835.25 per month)
and for system manage
ment updates ($2,300
per month).
“In our budget we
asked for another IT per
son, if that IT person is
approved then they can
offset that $2,300 a
month by doing it in
house,” Tolbert said.
“Total cost per month
estimated would be
$7,211 and it’s going to
be a yearly of $86,532 if
we do not get the county
employee, and if we do
get the employee, for
2019 the total cost
would be $58,935 for
cloud backup and securi
ty on the front end.”
If implemented Oct. 1,
the cost would be
$14,734 for the remain
der of year.
IT Specialist Will
Shattuck explained how
actions,” Johnson said.
“Whenever issues are
identified, we will address
them appropriately.
Obviously there is no
excuse for this type of
behavior.
“It is my hope, that
the system the depart
ment is considering
would work to store data
onsite, offsite and on
offline backup. The sys
tem would keep three
copies of the data, with
two types of storage
devices and with at least
one copy of data kept off
site.
“We currently pay for
an offsite storage facility
in Lumpkin County,”
Shattuck said. “We start
ed that earlier this year
as matter of fact. This
would allow us to con
tinue to use that fiber
connection between here
and that location. Of
course the final one is
what we consider most
important, keeping the
data offline. What that
means is I will actually
have the county data in
hand that can’t be
touched by another com
puter, another network,
it’s not connected in any
way to the internet.”
Commission Chairman
Billy Thurmond said
that the county had been
the victim of another
attempted attack since
April, and that Carvir
Security along with the
county IT department
was successful at block
ing it.
“It is something we
desperately need to do to
every young detention
officer will use this as an
example to stop and think
before potentially making
life-altering decisions.”
Betancourt is currently
being held in the Dawson
County Detention Center.
www.dawsonnews.com
protect our systems and
protect our employees
and keep everybody up
and working,”
Thurmond said.
The board is set to
vote Sept. 6 on the secu
rity recommendations.
Board of Tax
Assessors to finish
commercial revalua
tions alone
The board of commis
sioners at the bequest of
the Board of Tax
Assessors voted Aug. 23
to terminate a contract
with the company that
conducted all of the resi
dential property revalua
tions in 2017.
In a letter dated Aug.
17, Sam Gutherie, chair
man of the Board of Tax
Assessors, asked that the
current contract with
GMASS, or Georgia
Mass Appraisal
Solutions and Services,
which the county
entered into in May of
2017, be terminated for
convenience. The agree
ment was for a two-
phase appraisal of all
residential and then all
commercial parcels in
the county. The residen
tial was completed in
time for tax assessment
notices to go out June 4.
“We are appreciative
for the work performed
by the company during
the residential project,”
Gutherie wrote.
“However, we feel at
this time that it will be
to our advantage to pro
ceed with the commer
cial revaluation project
in-house.”
“The residential is
done, and that was the
larger portion by a good
bit of the contract, of
course, because it’s a
considerably larger num
ber of parcels,” County
Attorney Lynn Frey said
to the board of commis
sioners Aug.23. “Going
forward with the com
mercial is something
that the board feels they
can do in house with the
appraiser staff that they
already have.”
The board of commis
sioners voted unani
mously during a work
session Aug. 23 to pro
vide written notice to
GMASS that the county
would be terminating the
contract.
The total amount of
money the decision is
estimated to save the
county has not been tal
lied yet. The original
agreement was $500,000
for the whole process.
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