(TNS) — Massachusetts cities and cities are getting hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to harden their pc methods in opposition to hacks and ransomware assaults by cybercriminals.
The Local Government Cybersecurity Grant Program will present practically $7 million to cities, cities, and villages, native faculty districts and different native governments. The grants will present funding of $10,000 to as much as $100,000 to greater than 100 communities, the Healey-Driscoll administration stated.
Gov. Maura Healey stated the grants will guarantee native governments “have entry to the assets, instruments and steering they should shield themselves in opposition to more and more frequent and complicated cybersecurity threats.”
“Through these applications, my administration has taken a collaborative method to offering state companies and native communities with assets to forestall, put together for, and get well from assaults on their digital infrastructure,” she stated in an announcement.
According to the Healey administration, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office will obtain $100,000 in cybersecurity grant funding, Newburyport will obtain $51,910, Gloucester will obtain $54,931, Methuen will obtain $100,000 and Beverly will obtain $54,100.
According to the Healey administration, Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School, which serves greater than a dozen communities on the North Shore, will obtain a $100,000 grant via this system, whereas Andover faculties will obtain $92,000 and Ipswich faculties will obtain $77,278.
Federal funding can be supplied via the State and Local Cybersecurity Grants Program, overseen by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Massachusetts cities and cities are beneath fixed risk from hackers making an attempt to probe weaknesses in pc methods to steal cash and private data, and cybersecurity specialists say the assaults are getting worse.
Attacks vary from malware, ransomware, e-mail phishing scams, to old school scams utilizing the web to trick folks.
Many of the perpetrators function from abroad and have ties to deprave nation states and felony organizations, making them tough to catch. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 800,944 suspected circumstances of Internet crime final yr, with reported losses exceeding $10.2 billion.
According to the company, the highest crimes have been “phishing” scams, non-payment and non-delivery fraud, and extortion through the web.
Last yr, 7,805 Massachusetts residents have been victims of cybercrime, costing them greater than $226 million, in response to the FBI. Many of the victims have been seniors.
Cities and cities are going through an increase in ransomware, by which hackers encrypt native authorities and faculty networks till a ransom is paid.
Nearly seven in 10 native and state authorities IT leaders stated that they had encountered a ransomware assault up to now yr, in response to a 2023 Sophos report.
Most of those assaults started via unpatched methods or stolen passwords, in response to the report.
“Cyber threats are evolving, and Massachusetts is strengthening its methods and defenses to fulfill these threats head-on,” stated state Department of Public Safety and Security Commissioner Terrence Reidy. “These grant applications present us the chance to spend money on the instruments we have to shield our digital infrastructure and strengthen our communities’ resiliency.”
©2024 the Gloucester Daily Times (Gloucester, Mass.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.