County commissioners approve three-year renewal with Arctic Wolf for cybersecurity

Miami County commissioners unanimously authorized county staff to sign a three-year contract renewal with cybersecurity vendor Arctic Wolf on Sept. 3, the board said during its meeting.

County staff said the renewal continues a three-year relationship in which Arctic Wolf provides cybersecurity monitoring, firewall management and related services for county systems. Lucas Mellinger, assistant county administrator, told the commission the contract term is limited by Arctic Wolf policy to three years so the vendor can reassess customers’ changing technical environments.

Mellinger said the county previously paid about $81,000 annually for Arctic Wolf services and that the new contract raises the annual cost to $92,800 — about $7,737 per month — with 5% escalators in the following two years of the contract. He described the service as protection "from the bad guys" and framed it as preventing ransomware events that can require large bitcoin payments to recover data.

Commissioners moved and seconded the contract authorization; the motion carried unanimously.

The meeting transcript does not include further details about contract terms, the specific services covered beyond monitoring and firewall protection, or the contract’s vendor contact and procurement history. The transcript also does not specify budget line-items used to pay the contract or whether alternate vendors were considered.

Next steps identified in the meeting: staff will sign the three-year renewal as presented.

Speakers quoted or referenced in this article include only those who spoke about the Arctic Wolf item during the meeting.