Governmental Entities and Agencies

Each of the municipal entities above must protect their cyber network infrastructure against attacks and other less destructive compromises. A significant issue is that due to the large number of legacy systems, cross governmental integration issues, and the cost, government agencies have limited capabilities to protect and defend against cyber attacks.

There have been recent articles prepared by national news organizations highlighting some of the cyber concerns related to municipal governments and their obligations to their constituents and bond holders. See, America’s Cities are Running on Software From the ‘80s, Bloomberg Businessweek, March 4, 2019); and, How Cybersecurity Can Expose Issuer Vulnerabilities,The Bond Buyer, March 1, 2019;.

Public municipal entities that also sell bonds into the public market have unique concerns and disclosure responsibilities that fall on them as a result of a document obligations (e.g., continuing disclosure agreements with bond underwriters and the bond trustee). See, again, How Cybersecurity Can Expose Issuer Vulnerabilities, The Bond Buyer, March 1, 2019 (https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/how-cybersecurity-can-expose-issuer-vulnerabilities).

A recent report by Moody’s Investor’s Service contained the following information:

Moody’s Investors Service, Frank Mamo, Analyst (January 2019)

In a recent audit, the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that federal government systems have limited capability to detect “red flags” in network traffic that sometimes indicate attempts to attack and compromise a network. While numerous commercial security products are available, very few are developed and customized for the government.

Armolon works with the federal General Services Administration (GSA) through our partner agencies who are approved federal contractors. We are often engaged on an as needed basis for cybersecurity consulting on specific systems.