County cyber security, courthouse renovation discussed by elected officials

By Tay­lor Kaser

Copies of infor­ma­tion regard­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of Inter­net fil­ter­ing soft­ware for cour­t­house com­put­ers was passed out to offi­cials at the Sep­tem­ber elected offi­cials meeting.

The pack­ets explained what kinds of web­sites would be blocked and alert mes­sages that could be received when an employee clicks on a sus­pi­cious web­site, link, or pop up.

Sys­tem pref­er­ences can be tai­lored to the needs of each depart­ment or com­puter by the offi­cial of that depart­ment. Some web­sites, includ­ing some social media sites, are used by depart­ments in their duties.

A site log will be recorded, like the log of long dis­tance calls in each depart­ment. It works on a site basis, rather than screen­ing con­tent by spe­cific key words.

Com­mis­sioner Tom Whis­ton explained that when the com­puter server was first set up for the cour­t­house, the fil­ter­ing soft­ware was included. The soft­ware costs $3,2000, said Whiston.

Cur­rently under the county’s poli­cies, employ­ees are allowed to use county com­put­ers for unre­lated work activ­ity as long as it doesn’t inter­fere with work, explained Whiston.

The com­mis­sion­ers explained that the new pro­gram should aid in pro­duc­tiv­ity and cyber secu­rity, lim­it­ing ways in which viruses and tro­jans can enter county computers.

Judge Robert Hick­son gave an update on the cour­t­house ren­o­va­tion project, stat­ing that work has already freed up space in the cour­t­house. Fur­ni­ture for some of the depart­ments has also been secured, he said, look­ing at refur­bished pieces and other cost effec­tive means.

Whis­ton reported that the Co. Rd. 9 bridge replace­ment is on sched­ule and the new bridge will accom­mo­date two lanes ver­sus the pre­vi­ous one lane.

Sales tax in the county is up, Whis­ton com­mented. He also noted that the two opened casi­nos in the state suf­fered a 22% drop in rev­enue last month. He advised that this will prob­a­bly effect the quar­terly pay­ments the county receives from casino rev­enue via the state.

Sher­iff Steve Bren­ne­man noted that two cruis­ers for his office will enter­ing duty this week. The new MARCS radios donated by Franklin County are now in use, and have been installed in the new cruisers.

Clerk of Courts Vanessa Mills said that the remodel in the Titles depart­ment is com­plete, cost­ing less than $500. It has been cleaned, repainted, and refin­ished some of the fur­ni­ture. She also asked the com­mis­sion­ers if a phone sys­tem with mul­ti­ple exten­sions has ever been con­sid­ered for the cour­t­house, instead of sep­a­rate num­bers for each office.

Whis­ton said that they would look into it.

Hick­son also high­lighted the large impact that changes in the Ohio pub­lic employee pen­sion sys­tem has, and could have on county employ­ees. New leg­is­la­tion going into effect later this year could effect many employ­ees retire­ment plans. Com­plete infor­ma­tion about the changes has not been made clear to employ­ees or officials.

In con­clu­sion, Whis­ton dis­cussed how man­dates on the state level have thrust more of the finan­cial bur­den of pro­vid­ing ser­vices on the local level.

“Our expenses exceed our abil­ity to gen­er­ate rev­enue,” said Whis­ton, “I don’t think there’s any of the levies that we’ve put on for this fall that aren’t for things; the Gov­er­nor wanted things to go back to the local basis and that’s what we’re attempt­ing to do. Clearly from the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, that fund­ing is crit­i­cal. Roads and bridges, that $10 fee, we prob­a­bly should have had that 20 years ago. We’ll see what the vot­ers want to do.”

From the com­mis­sion­ers stand­point, Whis­ton stated, “We’re doing every­thing we can with every penny we get and cut­ting any place we can, any optional expense, we’re not doing.”

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Sep 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.