IT seeks recurring funding for patching and penetration testing to meet CJIS requirements

IT staff asked the court to fund two recurring security tools and one one‑time penetration testing capability to strengthen the county's cybersecurity compliance posture.

"The vulnerability management tool would be used to find those vulnerabilities and then classify them in terms of criticality," IT staff said, noting that current proof‑of‑concept tools have shown value ahead of an upcoming CJIS audit. He described two recurring items ($23,004.60 and $45,003.80 annually) for vulnerability and patch management and a $23,000 one‑time request for internal penetration testing that the county would run every 2–3 years. Staff said the recurring costs must be budgeted and that some items are already marked with an asterisk for the proposed budget.

Commissioners asked whether existing operational funds could cover near‑term tests; staff agreed to investigate using current operational budgets to expedite a penetration test this year. The budget officer said she would include items as proposed or roll them forward depending on availability and audit timing.