Cass County IT installs remote-management tool, expands monitoring and buys backup hardware

Bob, an IT staff member for Cass County, told commissioners the county has deployed a new remote-management agent and expanded its monitoring and backup capabilities to reduce vulnerabilities and improve response times.

Bob said the county rolled out an application called Action1 that "lives on every computer we have throughout the county and allows us to scan them for vulnerabilities as well as push new software or updates" and that in the two months since deployment "we have been able to halve the amount of vulnerabilities we had." He described Action1 as replacing an internally hosted solution that worked well when most machines were desktops but not for devices that travel offsite.

The new managed detection and response (MDR) service operates 24/7 to look for administrator login attempts, viruses and other anomalous activity. Bob reported the annual cost for that service is $34,000 and said it provides information the county would otherwise need a dedicated staffer to monitor.

Other investments reported included advance purchases of refresh hardware to avoid anticipated tariff-driven price increases, a new backup server purchase budgeted for this year, and a classroom audio-visual refresh at the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) that cost $6,100 because maintenance staff performed the installation. Bob said the county is moving roughly 111 devices through its refresh cycle this year and is deploying Windows 11 to endpoints, noting Windows 10 reaches end-of-life on Oct. 15, 2025.

Bob gave several operational metrics to illustrate the effect of the changes. He said the county has received about 110,000 incoming emails since September and has identified "over 660" legitimate phishing attempts; the county's measured "phish-prone" rate fell from 2.05% to 1.57%. He also said Tenable vulnerability counts have declined, reporting Tenable high-severity counts falling from about 971 to 449 and cited Action1 as a key factor in faster detection and remediation.

Bob closed by noting one of the larger forthcoming budget items will be a phone-system refresh and said IT staff will relocate to three different county locations on Feb. 10 as part of an office move.

The presentation included brief questions from commissioners about future budget requests; Bob said he does not currently anticipate major new cybersecurity asks beyond what has been implemented but emphasized cyber risk is a moving target and that the commission, executive staff and finance should determine the county's acceptable risk appetite.