Sikeston taking steps to protect from cyber attacks

SIKESTON — Cyber security has become a huge topic of concern, especially for municipalities and the City of Sikeston is taking steps to avoid becoming a victim.

On Monday, the Sikeston City Council approved the purchase and installation of SecurID by BroadTek. SecurID provides complete identity and access management, including authentication and governance, on a single trusted identity platform and will help protect the city.

Locally, both Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau have been victimized.

“The City of Cape Girardeau was crippled for weeks,” said Sikeston City Manager Jon Douglass, adding the city offices there couldn’t take utility payments or tax payments.

Karen Bailey, Sikeston finance director, told the City Council that Sikeston has carried cyber insurance, but when they attempted to renew their application for their cyber insurance policy, they were told they would be automatically declined from carriers unless they had software for multi-factor access when you access the system remotely.

Among what was needed was multi-factor access for: remote access to the network and cloud services (including third party vendors), remote access to email, back-ups and privileged/administrator users.

The cost of the software and installation is $29,860.80 for three years. After the three years, the City will have an annual subscription license fee for smart phones that will cost about $2,500 per year.

Broadtek, who already has a relationship with the City, was chosen to perform the installation in an effort to limit those that have access to the City’s computer network.

“We can’t get the software from Walmart,” Bailey said. “This is the company who helps our IT department when our IT department can’t fix it. We don’t want a lot of extra people with their hands in our system.”

Sikeston City Councilman Brian Self, who owns Self Insurance Agency in Sikeston, said cyber claims have increased almost 10 times since the pandemic.

“I think it’s imperative we have the cyber insurance,” Bailey said.