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Kewaunee County committee reviews paid countywide cybersecurity monitoring options
Summary
County staff presented two vendor options for 24/7 endpoint monitoring and incident response and recommended demos before committing; annual costs cited were roughly $25,000 and $49,000 and funding and insurance limits remain unresolved.
An IT staff member told the committee the county needs stronger defenses against ransomware and other cyber threats and presented two vendor examples that provide continuous monitoring and incident response.
The IT staff member said ransomware, “spamware, the viruses” have increased across Wisconsin and that some local governments have paid ransoms to recover data. He told the committee that one vendor, CloudStrike, offers a fully managed plan that places a client on each workstation and server to monitor activity 24 hours a day and, if it detects ransomware, “immediately isolates my machine, shuts my machine down, and then ... actually repair[s] that machine and remove[s] the ransomware.” He described a cheaper, limited CloudStrike package that provides tools for county staff to use rather than a fully managed service.
A second vendor, Cisco, was described as a market benchmark and was quoted at a higher annual cost. The IT staff member said the two price examples in the packet were approximately $25,000 a year for the CloudStrike fully managed option and about $49,000 a year for the Cisco option, and that those quotes would be re‑run if the committee pursued them. He emphasized the costs are ongoing annual fees.
The committee asked operational and financial questions. One supervisor asked whether the prices were one‑time or annual fees; the presenter confirmed they were annual. Committee members and staff discussed whether the county’s current insurance would cover ransom payments or recovery costs; Paul (staff) said insurance decisions about paying ransom and covering recovery costs would be decided after an incident and that recovery of all data is not guaranteed. The presenter noted some vendor quotes and demonstrations may restrict recording; he said CloudStrike will not allow the demo to be recorded but would permit committee members to attend a live demonstration.
Committee members agreed they did not want to commit without further review. The presentation concluded with a direction to arrange vendor demonstrations for the committee (CloudStrike already agreed to present virtually) and to add the vendor presentations as potential action items for next month’s meeting.
Funding, coverage and next steps remain undecided. The presenter said any maintenance agreement would likely be divided across departments by number of machines (for example, splitting costs with the city of Kewaunee if their machines are included). He also noted the vendor quotes in the packet had expired and would be updated if the committee chose to pursue procurement.
The committee did not take formal action; members asked for vendor demos and follow‑up at the next regular meeting.
Ending — The committee directed staff to arrange demos and to return with updated quotes and additional information on insurance and implementation timelines.
