Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the It Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County IT reports weather‑station network and other upgrades; third‑party cybersecurity audit planned
Summary
Linn County’s IT director reported multiple infrastructure upgrades, including citizen‑facing weather station feeds, replacement of equipment damaged by lightning, installation of an NCIC fiber circuit with the Kansas Office of IT Services and plans for a third‑party cybersecurity review to be completed in the coming weeks.
The county’s IT director gave a monthly update covering a range of hardware and network work and told commissioners the county will commission an outside cybersecurity audit in the next two months.
Chris Martin, county IT director, said four county weather stations have been configured to feed the Citizen Weather Observation Program so the public and agencies such as the National Weather Service can view local wind and rainfall data. "We have 4 weather stations around the county... we have now put those online through what's called the citizen weather observation program," Martin said.
Martin also reported the Mound City tower enclosure was replaced after a lightning strike and that staff upgraded grounding at multiple tower sites. He said the county installed an NCIC fiber circuit provided by the Kansas Office of Information Technology Services, repaired an intercom at the justice center, corrected a PLC door‑lock issue and removed IT equipment from the old sheriff's office for possible reuse or e‑waste disposal.
On cybersecurity, Martin said the county has contracted an outside firm to perform a third‑party systems security audit covering firewalls and other defenses; staff expect the audit to take place within roughly 60 days. "We are working with an outside cybersecurity company to do a third party system security audit on our systems," he said.
Martin also said the county is upgrading workstations to Windows 11 in line with Microsoft security guidance, installing new intercoms for the jail lobby, and replacing security and tower cabling at the fairgrounds. He told the commission the upgrades and the planned audit are meant to reduce vulnerability after other government entities suffered intrusions.
The commission did not take any action on funding at the meeting; the IT updates were presented as a monthly report.
