Westchester IT chief outlines cybersecurity focus, $62,000 capital plan and pilot AI use

Westchester Borough IT staff reported Sept. 9 that cybersecurity now accounts for roughly half of the department's operating work and that next year's capital budget is largely dedicated to leases and scheduled replacements. Bill Mann presented the quarterly report and a preliminary 2026 budget to the Act Committee.

Mann said cybersecurity has become "40 to 50% of what we do" and described layered protections the borough uses, including advanced threat protection, automated email-gateway defenses and monthly phishing tests. He told the committee a July 21 outage tied to the borough's Barracuda email gateway left email inaccessible between roughly 4:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. but that "no email was lost."

The report listed operational metrics and recent projects. Mann said the IT help desk averaged 73 tickets per month (576 between January and August), the department completed audio upgrades in the council chambers, finished most Windows 11 upgrades, installed…