Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
More than 200 elected and appointed officials participated in an MMA cybersecurity webinar yesterday to discuss how and why municipalities should continue to prioritize cybersecurity during the COVID-19 emergency.
Ron Ford, New England regional cybersecurity advisor with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, provided an update on his agency’s response to COVID-19, including providing guidance on telework best practices and a cyber alert regarding the methods cyber criminals are using to target individuals and organizations during the COVID-19 emergency.
Ford led a discussion about the importance of cyber resiliency plans and covered best practices to ensure that municipalities are prepared in the event of a cyber incident.
Stephanie Helm, director of the MassCyberCenter at MassTech, gave an overview of the nature of cyber threats faced by cities and towns. She highlighted the Cyber Resilient Mass Working Group, which brings together public and private sector tech leaders to improve cybersecurity resiliency in Massachusetts through planning.
Helm discussed the MassCyberCenter’s Cybersecurity Toolkit for Municipalities, and the state-funded Incident Response Plan Workshops that are being developed to support municipalities in developing or reviewing their cyber incident response plans in collaboration with neighboring communities.
Cybersecurity resources
• IT security products and services from the U.S. General Services Administration
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
• CISA Coronavirus resources
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
• Listen to an audio recording of the webinar (35M MP3)
• MassCyberCenter presentation materials (2M PDF)
• Ron Ford, Regional Cybersecurity Advisor for New England at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency presentation materials (645K PDF)