Carthage reviews five-year IT plan and reports a ransomware probe that staff say was not targeted

Michael Keith, Carthage’s IT administrator, presented a five-year information-technology plan at the Feb. 11 council meeting that calls for stepped investments in cybersecurity, network upgrades, conference-room technology and fleet connectivity.

Keith told the Budget, Ways and Means Committee that rising costs require strategic investment to keep essential services secure and functional. The plan recommended replacements for police and fire data terminals, a printer replacement project, a security assessment and incident-response plan, backup for dispatch systems, router upgrades for fleet vehicles ahead of a 2028 phaseout of 4G routers, access-control upgrades across departments, a server-simplification project and an upgrade to conference-room equipment to support virtual meetings.

The IT proposal included a server-simplification approach intended to reduce the number of servers and lower operational costs. Keith described a recent response to a potential ransomware indicator: he and contractor Stronghold Data investigated a dark-web posting that displayed a logo and other associated data. City Administrator Tracy Cox told the council that the associated data appeared to reference Carthage, Texas, not Carthage, Missouri, and that city staff and Stronghold treated the event as a valuable test of security procedures. "We did receive information of a potential ransomware attack on our city, where the logo was found on the dark web," Cox said. She told council the incident was handled as a security exercise and staff concluded Carthage, Missouri was not targeted.

Why it matters: The five-year plan lays out capital and operational investments that council members said they will examine at the March 5 capital work session. The cybersecurity incident, while not an active breach according to staff, prompted city officials to emphasize continued monitoring and vendor coordination.

Council members and staff raised a series of project priorities: ensuring a fully functional dispatch backup station, phasing fleet routers from 4G to new 5G-compatible models, and completing an incident response plan and external security assessment. The plan included capital requests to be considered in the budget process; the Budget, Ways and Means Committee recommended $10,658.25 to the IT department's capital outlay for network and host projects as part of the bundle of budget adjustments reported to council.

Next steps: The council scheduled a capital work session for March 5 where the IT requests will be reviewed along with other departmental capital proposals.