Vista IT department reports 2024 cybersecurity success, plans cloud migrations and AI pilot
Loading...
Summary
IT Director Chris Mitchell told the council the department blocked millions of attacks in 2024, completed migrations to vendor-hosted solutions and replaced failing Wi-Fi; 2025 priorities include business-license and permitting system upgrades, VoIP migration and monitored pilots for AI tools.
Chris Mitchell, Vista's IT director, presented the information-technology department's 2024 annual review and strategic-plan update, an informational presentation that required no council action.
Mitchell told the council the department completed all planned projects from the strategic plan, including changing the city's primary Internet domain to vista.gov, migrating the enterprise resource planning and document-management systems to vendor-hosted solutions, launching a new employee intranet and replacing failing Wi-Fi systems. "I'm pleased to report that we achieved a 100% success rate in blocking these attempts," Mitchell said when describing the department's cybersecurity posture after reporting that systems had recorded roughly 40,000,000 attempted firewall intrusions, over 3,500,000 malicious emails and more than 350,000 attempts to bypass two-factor authentication; he reported no known incidents of unauthorized access or loss of sensitive data in 2024.
Mitchell outlined 2025 priorities: upgrade and migrate the business-license application; overhaul asset-management and permitting systems; migrate the VoIP phone system to a vendor-hosted cloud solution; replace network storage infrastructure; and continue a robust cybersecurity program. He said the department is preparing to pilot AI tools for business processes and cited the vendor product Wordly as an example of technology under review.
Council members praised the prevention work and asked operational questions. Council Member Corina Contreras asked whether publicly available Wi-Fi at the Civic Center and other city facilities is mapped for public awareness; Mitchell said public Wi-Fi is available at the Civic Center and at all city-staffed facilities and that the city could develop a GIS layer or public map. Contreras also asked whether security-breach scenarios are exercised; Mitchell said the city maintains a cybersecurity and disaster-recovery plan and conducts internal scenario planning, but that those materials are internal. Council Member O'Donnell asked about phishing-reporting tools; Mitchell said a reporting button can be added to city employee email accounts and that the city conducts phishing testing and assigns additional training for people who fail tests.
The presentation closed with council appreciation for the department's work and no further action required.
