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Solano County adopts Cybersecurity Awareness Month resolution after IT and CISA outline AI‑era threats
Summary
Solano County adopted a resolution recognizing National Cybersecurity Awareness Month after county IT and a CISA adviser briefed supervisors on phishing reductions, endpoint protection, AI‑enabled attack vectors and the need for ongoing training and incident rehearsal.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing National Cybersecurity Awareness Month after receiving a briefing from county IT and a guest from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Tim Flanagan, Solano County chief information officer, and Jamie Fontillera, IT security manager, described steps the county has taken to strengthen defenses, including continuous network monitoring, annual penetration testing, advanced endpoint protection and a countywide security awareness program. Fontillera told the board that a recent phishing‑simulation campaign reduced user failure rates from 7.2% to 1.5% year over year.
Mario Garcia, supervisory cybersecurity adviser at CISA, stressed emerging AI‑enabled threats such as automated spear‑phishing, data poisoning and automated hacking tools that can scale attacks. Garcia recommended investments in defensive AI tools, zero‑trust architectures and sustained exercises with federal and state partners to improve response times.
Flanagan told the board IT is integrating AI detection capabilities with vendor partners and working with general services on capital improvements to the county data center for resilience. He said most AI tools the county plans to use are cloud‑hosted, which shifts power and cooling demands to cloud providers while creating dependencies on redundant internet access.
Supervisor questions focused on practical detection signals (for example, unexplained cursor movement or encrypted files) and whether the county can provide public classes or materials. Flanagan and Fontillera said staff will follow up with a materials package for supervisors to share with constituents.
The board adopted the resolution recognizing Cybersecurity Awareness Month (resolution number referenced in the meeting as 2024‑159) by unanimous vote and directed staff to continue awareness training and coordination with federal and state partners.
