County approves six‑month managed detection trial; AI pilot (Claude) held for later review

Karen Skipworth (CIO) and Jess Greenfeld (IT security) briefed the court on two evaluation trials. Greenfeld said the managed detection and response (MDR) trial would provide 24/7 monitoring of the county's existing file‑monitoring tool and that staff currently review a large alert volume but lack a 24x7 security operations center. He estimated a future annual subscription cost of about $50,000 per year for the service.

The court voted 5–0 to approve participation in the six‑month MDR trial at no cost to the county. Skipworth and Greenfeld said the trial will help the county assess value before allocating budget for a subscription.

Separately, IT proposed a six‑month pilot of Anthropic's Claude for IT‑only experimentation that would not be trained on county data; staff said the pilot cost would be about $5,000 for six months and emphasized policy, retention and security questions. Commissioners raised concerns about potential security implications and future operating costs and elected to hold the Claude item for a future briefing and possible executive‑session discussion rather than act today.

Impact: the MDR trial provides near‑term improved monitoring and an evidence base for a potential future budget request; the AI pilot raised policy and security questions that staff will brief further.