Counties get no-cost endpoint detection and response services
GettyImages/ Weiquan Lin
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $30 million shared services program designed to help counties secure government systems and protect against ransomware attacks.
To help its 57 counties better defend against ransomware and cyberattacks, New York state is offering counties endpoint detection and response (EDR) services at no cost.
In a July 21 statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $30 million shared services program designed to help counties secure government systems and protect against ransomware attacks.
The announcement comes after the February launch of the state’s Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC) in Brooklyn, a data sharing hub that brings bring together critical infrastructure partners with federal, state, county and local governments to improve incident response and provide a holistic view of the cyber threat landscape.
As part of the new shared services program, New York's counties and the State's initial JSOC city partners — Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Yonkers — will be offered free CrowdStrike EDR services, which can detect and isolate a compromised endpoint. The technology will allow state cybersecurity teams to more effectively identify, triage and prioritize sophisticated attacks, leading to faster and more precise remediation, state officials said.
The EDR program is part of JSOC’s strategy to centralize cybersecurity risk management across the state’s interconnected systems and IT programs. It also addresses the challenges many resource-constrained counties face protecting their administrative systems as well as those that support health care, emergency management, utility services and law enforcement.
The services can be provided at no cost to counties and the JSOC cities through the state’s consolidated licensing and economies of scale, officials said.
“Most counties can't possibly afford all of the defense systems needed to protect our networks and data, and no single county can do what the state can do: Get excellent deals on resources, such as the endpoint antivirus protection JSOC is purchasing for us; track data and detect trends across the whole state; and provide an early warning system when cyber threats are imminent,” New York State Local Government Information Technology Directors Association President Paul Lutwak said. “This statewide approach to cybersecurity makes sense, saves money and will help us establish a strong defense.”