Grimes County commissioners approve contingency payment for sheriff’s servers; staff warn of increased cyberattacks

Grimes County Commissioners Court voted to pay for the sheriff’s office servers from contingency funds and authorized the county auditor to make necessary accounting changes, the court said during its regular meeting.

The action, moved by Commissioner Chad Mallett and seconded by Commissioner David Tullis on agenda item 10, passed on a voice vote. The motion said the server purchase would be paid “through the contingency and allow the county auditor to do whatever necessary changes there are,” language recorded in the meeting transcript.

The vote followed public comments from county IT staff warning of increased external attacks on county networks. “We’re doing the penetration testing of our networks from our third party company the last 2 to 3 weeks. We’re seeing a very heightened attack on the network in the last 2 weeks… I would just ask the employees to be very careful about what you see on the network,” a staff member identified in the transcript as Greg Cannon said. Court members asked that an email reminder be sent to employees about suspicious emails and links.

Why it matters: Using contingency funds reduces the county’s unassigned reserve and requires the auditor to record the expenditure and any needed internal reallocations. County IT’s warning underscores a recent increase in attempted network intrusions detected during penetration testing, which county staff said could affect county operations if successful.

Details: The transcript records a remaining contingency balance of $205,377 mentioned during discussion. The motion did not include a recorded roll-call tally in the minutes; the court announced the motion carried after a voice vote. The speaker who announced the cyberattacks identified himself by name in the meeting but was not given a formal job title in the transcript.

The record does not specify the vendor, the exact server cost, or timeline for installation. The auditor was authorized to make “necessary changes” to the county’s accounts related to the purchase, per the motion text recorded in the transcript.

No further action was recorded on related inventory reviews for sheriff’s office or other departmental equipment during this agenda item; staff later said inventory validation for the sheriff’s office and the Navasota departments was pending and would be available in about a week.

The court moved on to subsequent agenda items after the vote.