Mission buys firewall infrastructure

The Mission City Council ratified Monday the purchase of a little over $44,000 worth of firewall infrastructure meant to bolster security at city hall and the Mission Police Department in the wake of a debilitating ransomware attack.

 

City Manager Mike Perez said the city made the purchase based on recommendations from cybersecurity experts and the Texas Department of Public Safety after the cyber security incident.

 

“This is what they recommended to help beef up our security here,” he said.

 

 

A breach late last month resulted in all of the city’s servers and backup servers being encrypted.

 

The city expects mitigation and recovery efforts related to the incident to last months, and it’s said cybersecurity experts and law enforcement are conducting parallel incidents into it.

 

Mission bought its new firewall infrastructure from Telepro Communications.

 

The purchase includes four firewalls for the police department which will be used to segregate its network by providing direct internet access, strengthen the protection of lateral movement of data and provide encryption for remote substations.

 

It also includes one firewall for city hall that will be used to strengthen its security posture regarding the lateral movement of data.

 

“It’s gonna add an extra layer to what they may already have existing and it’s just gonna improve they’re security posture,” said Luis Gonzalez, South Texas College’s chief information security officer, who reviewed documents related to the purchase for the Progress Times. “In basic terms, that’s what these firewalls will be doing. It should give the people and the employees of the city of Mission peace of mind that they’re taking the right steps towards securing their networks from any future cyber threats and cyber attacks.

 

Gonzalez described the software and hardware the city bought as fairly commonplace but modern.

 

 

“I’m sure they had some type of firewalls before,” he said. “This one, it’s more next generation type of firewalls that have multiple features and tools within that can improve their security posture. So, they do a lot more than just monitor traffic that comes in and out of the network, they can also secure data, they can also secure user information and credentials.”

 

Perez said professionals advising the city recommended better segregating city hall systems from ones at Mission Police Department.

 

Sometimes, Gonzalez said, organizations will focus disproportionately on detecting threats from external sources. Detecting threats that have already breached that first line of defense and are spreading internally can be a blind spot. 

 

Theoretically, Gonzalez said, the city’s new firewalls would help the city better detect and mitigate the impact of any potential future threat.

 

“You want to make sure that you have eyes and you have some safeguards in those moving pieces, so you can also identify any malicious activity within your network, not only when it comes in or leaves your network,” he said.