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City IT director warns of cybersecurity, radio and Windows upgrades that carry steep near‑term costs
Summary
IT staff described a recent CrowdStrike incident, ongoing cybersecurity defenses, an urgent Windows upgrade for hundreds of computers, and a proposed long‑term contract to maintain the city’s public‑safety radio system.
San Angelo’s IT director briefed the council on cybersecurity posture, an urgent migration off older operating systems, and recurring costs for the city’s radio and public‑safety systems.
Key points: - Cybersecurity program and recent incident: The city’s network monitoring partnership with Angelo State University and a commercial threat‑management provider helped detect an incident last year in which an industry standard vendor update caused widespread computer outages. “It was all over the news…our virus protection program shut down every computer that we had it on,” the director said, describing a major response and subsequent lessons learned. - Windows 10 end‑of‑support: IT reported that Microsoft’s end‑of‑support for Windows 10 requires an upgrade to Windows 11 and that an inventory of approximately 289 computers must be checked and upgraded or replaced before the October deadline. The director warned some hardware will require replacement rather than an in‑place upgrade. - Radio system maintenance: The city’s modern public‑safety radio system now functions as software on servers and requires continuous maintenance. The IT director cited a prior vendor quote of approximately $400,000 per year for a long‑term radio maintenance contract and urged that such ongoing contracts are now a necessary part of maintaining a mission‑critical system.
Why it matters: The technical items carry both budgetary and operational consequences. The director said radio systems and servers cannot be left unmaintained and that the traditional practice of doing a one‑time capital purchase and waiting years between upgrades is no longer viable.
Next steps: IT staff will continue the computer inventory, pursue funding for replacements or upgrades, and present options for radio maintenance contracting and associated budget impacts to council. No formal action or contract award was taken during the briefing.
