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Bel Air budget session highlights technology investments: cybersecurity upgrades and fiber redundancy
Summary
Commissioners reviewed a technology budget that proposes a major cybersecurity upgrade (SentinelOne SIEM), new multifactor authentication tokens, backup telephony and satellite internet, record-archiving migration, and a proposed trench and dedicated fiber run to create redundancy for critical HMAN connectivity.
At its April 23 budget work session the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners heard a detailed technology presentation from Technology Manager Joshua (Josh) Forth and administration that laid out multi-year investments to strengthen cybersecurity, continuity and records management.
Forth described a planned move to a security information and event management (SIEM) system (identified as SentinelOne in the presentation) recommended by the State of Maryland after a cybersecurity overview. "This would be a replacement to what we're using now ... it is more expensive and includes a lot more functionality," he said, noting the upgrade would improve monitoring and incident response.
The technology budget also includes recurring licensing for Microsoft 365 and the Entra security suite, Barracuda email protection and archiving, CradlePoint NetCloud Manager to centrally manage routers in patrol vehicles, and a hosted migration of the Docar records archive (with an expected recurring cost of about $8,500 per year) to preserve historic minutes and provide off-site continuity.
To reduce single points of failure for emergency services, staff proposed Microsoft Teams phone licenses as an alternate telephony system and a Starlink satellite internet failover after service disruptions. Forth explained the town is pursuing 75 hardware multifactor authentication key fobs to replace purely password-based logins and plans replacement cycles for patrol vehicle routers and semi-rugged laptops (Toughbooks).
A major infrastructure item under discussion is a new trenched fiber route to provide a fully redundant physical connection to HMAN (dispatch/phone/radio). Forth described a route tying into existing trenches near DPW and estimated that trenching work can be expensive; commissioners and staff discussed contractor KCI as the vendor model and noted that aerial fiber options are no longer permitted in many areas.
Line items discussed in the session included backup service and Barracuda off-site replication (~$20,000), ArcGIS licensing (~$16,100), firewall analyzer support (~$19,460), an Adobe Acrobat subscription (about $16,000 for 60 licenses) and a GovQuest Public Information Act management system to handle a growing volume of records requests.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about costs and redundancy; staff said some purchases will be split across fiscal years and some recurring annual fees will begin in FY27. The board did not take immediate final votes on individual technology purchases during the public session.
