Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cybersecurity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Columbus tech director seeks dozens of IT hires after 2024 cyber incident, flags rising licensing costs
Summary
Department of Technology described a 2024 cyber incident response, reported monitoring and mitigation metrics, and proposed staff additions (network/fiber specialists, data analysts, cybersecurity roles) to improve resilience; council probed training, control over systems, and recruitment strategies.
The City of Columbus Department of Technology outlined staffing and investment needs to strengthen the city's cybersecurity posture and support ongoing modernization.
Director Sam Orth said the department responded to a cyber incident in July 2024 and since then has strengthened infrastructure and monitoring. He reported that the department has monitored more than 200 billion cyber events, blocked more than 400,000 threats, contained 373 incidents, migrated 9,000 devices to modern endpoint protection, and processed more than 60,000 tech help tickets with a 98% resolution rate.
Orth proposed expanding technology staff in 2025 with approximately 25 new positions for data governance, network and fiber specialists to extend connectivity to key facilities such as fire stations and recreation centers, dedicated data analysts supporting mayoral priorities, and cyber-security specialists tailored to public safety systems. He estimated the department's operating budget request at $663,439,624 to support personnel, licensing and capital needs.
"These resources will be of great assistance to city departments," Orth said, adding that roughly 45% of the city's 500 IT systems are DOT-provided and the remainder are managed by individual departments. He emphasized that the city's talent market is competitive and that the department reduced vacancy rates from near-COVID-era highs to about 11% through targeted recruitment and community outreach.
Council members pressed for details on end-user cybersecurity training plans and whether the department has capacity to manage systems that individual departments control. Orth said training for staff and system owners is part of the plan and that DOT's role includes enterprise infrastructure, hosting services, and advising on applications run by other departments.
Orth also warned of steep software-as-a-service licensing cost increases that affect recurring operating budgets and noted some legacy solutions are being sunsetted by vendors, increasing ongoing maintenance obligations.
Next steps: DOT staff will return with implementation details and ongoing plans for recruiting and training to support the city's cybersecurity and data governance objectives.
