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Emergency management shifts to Regroup after vendor breach of legacy mass‑notification system
Summary
Kane County’s emergency management reported its legacy mass‑notification vendor was compromised and shut down; staff accelerated migration to Regroup, which is less expensive and operationally ready, while also reporting new resilience specialist hire and a statewide debris‑management plan template.
Scott, Kane County’s emergency management director, told the Judicial & Public Safety Committee that his office had three recent successes — hiring a resilience specialist, delivering outreach presentations to township officials and completing a debris management plan — and one major challenge: their existing mass‑notification provider was compromised.
"We got word this week that this system is code red. The system was compromised and shut down," Scott said, adding the office had already been migrating to Regroup, "a new system, which is about half as expensive, and a better system," and that the county "could use it today" if needed. He said the office expedited the switch to maintain alerting capability.
Scott also described the county’s debris management plan, developed with the Illinois Public Works Mutual Aid Network (IPWMAN), and said IPWMAN asked to adopt the plan as a statewide template. He said the resilience specialist hire (Dan Nelson) will focus on training, exercises, public education and critical infrastructure, including emergency shelters.
What’s next: Emergency Management has finalized the new system setup and will continue staff onboarding and outreach; the committee asked for clearer staffing and space needs documentation to help prioritize resources.
