Why Local Government Cybersecurity?

There are other reasons to be concerned about cybersecurity among local governments. The first is the sheer number of American local governments. Second, local governments provide essential, often critical public services to their residents and visitors. A third reason to examine cybersecurity among America’s local governments is that they receive, utilize, and store volumes of sensitive information, especially personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, drivers’ license numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, tax records, and medical information. Finally, there is an enormous gap in the scholarly and professional publications on the subject of local government cybersecurity. The chapter next examines two cases of notable instances of local governments that were successfully hacked, including Baltimore, MD and Atlanta, GA. These examples were selected to demonstrate the current state of local government cybersecurity and the impact that a successful cyberattack can have upon local communities that are not properly prepared for them.