Massachusetts announced the state’s 2024 Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program. This program will train 78,000 workers from public school districts and cities and towns across the state to stop cyberattacks.
The state’s Office of Municipal and School Technology runs the program, which aims to make people more cyber-ready by giving them virtual training, testing, and danger simulations. When it’s done, groups will get licenses for end-user training, testing, and phishing simulation.
In a statement, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said, “Our administration is committed to working with our municipalities to move forward on our shared IT and cybersecurity goals.” “The Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Training Grant Program is great because it has helped so many cities and towns get ready for cyber threats.”
Massachusetts’ government offices, schools, and important infrastructure have been hacked before, as have many other state and city governments.
A ransomware attack in January 2018 shut down a school on Nantucket Island. An old employee of a public high school in Essex County attacked the school’s computer network in June, doing damage to it. And in December, a cyberattack shut down the electronic health records system at Anna Jaques Hospital, which is 35 miles north of Boston. During the winter holidays, the hospital had to turn away ambulances because of the problem.
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Lt. Gov. Kimberley Driscoll said in a statement, “Programs like the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant really move the needle with our municipal workforce, which is where the rubber meets the road on cybersecurity.” “This program makes it clear that cybersecurity is everyone’s job, whether we have “IT” in our job titles or not. It’s free for cities and employees to take the training.”
The program has one training path for public school employees and three training tracks for city workers: tradition, advanced, and comprehensive.
From January to December, each training program runs. It starts with a test to see how much people know about basic cybersecurity. Next, there are training modules and simulated phishing email campaigns to teach people about the hacking techniques that bad guys often use to get into government systems without permission.
Massachusetts also has the Community Compact IT Grant Program, the Community Compact Municipal Fiber Grant Program, and the Free safety Health Check Program to help government workers learn about safety and update their IT.
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