A state grant is beefing up cybersecurity at the Town of Arlington — welcome news following the cybertheft of nearly half a million dollars from the town in recent months.
Nearly $7 million in federal grant funds have been distributed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to local governments and state agencies to enhance cybersecurity initiatives and reduce cyber-risk.
Of this total, the Town of Arlington got $98,729.76, according to a state announcement earlier this summer.
The money is particularly welcome following a sophisticated criminal scheme by overseas individuals. The losses occurred between September 2023 and January 2024, during which time a variety of means were employed by bad actors to impersonate a legitimate vendor and to thereby receive money from the town; the actual vendor has since been compensated.
The grant is already being used to advance the town’s multifactor authentication initiative, which the town previously had been able to roll out only to key personnel, town officials say. With this cybersecurity grant, the town now can cover the MFA licensing and hardware costs to expand the initiative throughout the organization.
“I’m grateful to the Healey-Driscoll administration for its commitment to supporting municipalities against cyberthreats,” said Arlington Town Manager Jim Feeney in a July 25 news release. “With this funding we will be able to strengthen our cybersecurity posture. I want to thank the Information Technology [Department] team for its urgent response to implementing this and other recent cybersecurity measures.”
An ACMi “Town Hall Update” video on Vimeo has more information at the 9:34 mark.
Multifactor authentication
In response to a YourArlington inquiry, Feeney added more recently, ““This critical funding for the continued rollout of multifactor authentication, as well as the deployment of additional security measures and tools by the Information Technology Department, will not only strengthen the town’s overall cybersecurity posture, but [it will] also serve to directly protect us against the type of scam we fell victim to, as well as other emerging cyber threats.”
Cybersecurity measures now being implemented by the town’s information technology staff include:
- Rolling out the mandatory cybersecurity training for all staff, funded through the state’s Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program;
- Rolling out end-point detection and espronse at the end of July for all town computers and servers; and
- Expanding threat defense over the next three months to include:
- Enhanced protection against spam and malware, phishing and impersonation, and domain fraud;
- Threat hunting and response and
- Additional cloud archiving and backup.
For additional information on the state’s cyber security grant, one may read the commonwealth’s press release.
Case still under investigation
YourArlington has asked about the status of the ongoing criminal investigation, which is being carried out by the Boston office of the FBI and other law enforcement entities that are not being identified at this time.
No further information is being released, such as what vendor was involved; how many employee email addresses were compromised and in which departments; and in what foreign nation(s) the perpetrators are believed to be based.
Joan Roman, the town’s public information officer, has said about the situation that “We will not be releasing any additional information at this time, as the matter remains under investigation by our law-enforcement partners.”
June 5, 2024: Unknown cybercriminals hack town, steal $446k; officials work to recoup loss, prevent recurrence
This account was published Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, based on a news release and a later statement from the Town of Arlington plus YourArlington’s files.
