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Waseca County approves supplemental cybersecurity insurance after hearing lessons from recent county incidents
Summary
After hearing lessons learned from other counties’ ransomware incidents, the Waseca County Board approved a supplemental cybersecurity insurance package and discussed increased backup and multifactor authentication requirements; the meeting record shows the motion to approve the package and the chair’s summary of technical safeguards.
County staff briefed the board on cybersecurity incidents in other counties and recommended supplemental cyber insurance to raise available coverage and speed incident response. Staff described current protections — immutable backups and a disaster recovery appliance — and said MCIT’s standard coverage effectively caps at about $500,000; supplemental coverage discussed would extend coverage toward the $3 million umbrella described in the briefing.
A presenter summarized lessons learned from a recent county breach: weak passwords, lack of multifactor authentication, and lengthy contractor response times. Staff said supplemental insurers typically require additional security measures as conditions of coverage and that the county was already working to meet those prerequisites.
The board debated the premium cost and the trade-offs of increased coverage versus potentially becoming a larger target. The chair moved to purchase the supplemental package (motion language was recorded in the meeting record). The board approved the supplemental insurance by voice vote.
The meeting transcript records the motion text as given in the meeting — an amount described verbatim in the meeting packet — but the exact premium notation in the verbatim transcript is ambiguous; county staff would need to be consulted for the precise premium and contractor terms. Staff said they expect additional insurer requirements and that implementation will proceed as those conditions are set.
