Cyberattacks

This chapter discusses the nature of cyberattacks that local governments contend with on an almost daily basis. It uses data from several sources, including from the first‐ever nationwide survey of cybersecurity among American's grassroots or local governments to address cyberattacks against these governments. The chapter begins by briefly discussing the methodology employed to conduct the 2016 survey from which the data in the chapter are derived. Then it examines the data from that survey concerning attacks and attackers against local government information assets, local government cybersecurity preparedness, and the barriers to achieving high levels of cybersecurity in them. The chapter then concludes by providing some recommendations to local governments for improving their levels of cybersecurity and makes suggestions for future research into local government cybersecurity.