CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The City of Champaign will be switching to a new cybersecurity provider later this month, thanks to a measure approved by the Champaign City Council.
The City Council approved a three-year contract with cybersecurity firm Field Effects during Tuesday's meeting. The city will pay $64,278 annually for this contract.
The cybersecurity firm will provide the city with tools to prevent malicious hacking, including firewalls, antivirus protection, network access security software, and cloud backups.
Officials said in a city memo that the city is being targeted daily by phishing and malware attacks. The city also faced a phishing scam in 2018, an international hack in 2019, and multiple international login attempts with compromised credentials.
Mark Toalson, the city's IT director, said if the city were to face a cyber attack, the effects would add up quickly.
“If the attack is successful, it could literally bring down city systems,” Toarson said. “Anything to do with computers, that's everything these days. So online payments, getting building permits, all those systems are going to be shut down.”
From 2021 to 2024, the city used cybersecurity with ArticWolf.
The contract was approved unanimously. It will come into effect on March 30th.
