The Ohio County which includes the capital city of Columbus has decided to buy $200,000 worth cyber insurance policy against cyber attacks. The decision was to take in wake of increase in cyber threats on a global note.
Security experts of the county say that the new spending on insurance will help in improving internal security improvements in the event of hack and will also help to hire specialists who track cyber invasions and help in restoring the computer systems.
Presently, the Franklin County Data Center spends around $3 million per annum on cyber security. The spending is done with an aim to keep all critical info of the populace such names, addresses and social security numbers well protected from hackers.
On an additional note, the county administrator has also disclosed that authorities are working on issues to improve the IT infrastructure of the entire county. Officials are planning to replace legacy systems with new hardware and software. This includes replacing around 700 Windows XP run machines with new Windows 10 operating system.
In May 2017, Computers running on Microsoft XP and 7 operating systems were targeted by hackers spreading WannaCry ransomware.
Microsoft immediately announced that all those public and private entities using legacy Windows OS machines should make a shift to Win 10 as quickly as possible.
For this reason, Ohio County has decided to replace all its machines running on legacy OSes with the latest Windows 10. But the shift will take time and officials are hoping to complete the transition by mid next year.
Note- The Franklin County Administrator calls the new insurance purchase a “Belt and Suspenders” approach to protect the digital assets of the county.
