Othello to test security of computer networks

by CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Staff Writer | August 14, 2020 8:00 PM

OTHELLO — The city of Othello has decided to conduct a security audit of the city’s computer networks due to an increased frequency of cyber attacks and the amount of employees working from home.

“I’m looking at our network, our water system and a few other things, and I recommend we get a security audit to do our best to make sure we are securely accessing our networks,” Abner Garza, Othello’s IT director, told members of the city council during a regular meeting on Monday.

Council members approved the $11,500 audit with cybersecurity consultancy Ednetics, which has offices across the Pacific Northwest as well as in Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona. However, Council Member Corey Everett voted against the audit after expressing some concerns about provisions in the contract stating charges for equipment and materials would be extra and that the company would not guarantee its work.

“There are no requirements for equipment and materials. Everything will be done remotely,” Garza said, adding that the provision would be struck from the contract.

Council Member Jon Erickson said the auditor can only guarantee that Othello’s networks meet accepted industry security standards, or recommend ways they meet those standards.

“There’s no warranty they can provide. They can’t guarantee we won’t be hacked,” he said.

Though Erickson also warned that consultants tend to find problems only they can solve.

Garza said the city doesn’t do an annual security audit of its computer system but probably ought to.

According to Mayor Shawn Logan, the audit will be paid for out of the $250,000 in federal funds the city received as part of the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act which Congress passed in late March.

The city also still holds a huge stockpile of protective masks that it ordered earlier in the year. In response to a question from Council Member Mark Snyder, Logan said the city ordered five protective masks per water customer but had been unable to give out more than a few of them.

“We expected to have moved to Phase 3, and city hall would have reopened, and we would have handed them out at the counter,” he said.

Instead, Logan said the city has given them out to police officers, firefighters and local businesses so that business owners could give them out to customers.