9.1 SR 07-20-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Request for Action To Item Number Mayor and City Council 9.1 Agenda Section Meeting Date Prepared by Work Session July 20, 2020 John Dietz, Mayor Item Description Reviewed by Cyber Ransom Committee Cal Portner, City Administrator Reviewed by Action Requested Discuss and provide staff direction. Background/Discussion An Elk River business was the victim of cyber ransom case about one year ago. The owner came to the city for help. The city IT Manager, who felt strongly that the city should go to the affected business site and try to help them out of the mess, told the business owner he would ask his supervisor, the finance director, and the city administrator if he could help on city time with city resources. Both the finance director and the city administrator denied the request citing it did not meet Minnesota Public Purpose Expenditure Law requirements and would expose the city to legal liability. Mayor Dietz received an email request from the businessman asking for the city to establish a Cyber Ransom Team. The outline of the team is as follows: • To assemble a team of both public and private people (about 3-6 people) • Work with the team to build materials and resources to help businesses protect themselves from Cyber Ransom • Deploy this information to all the businesses in our community • Meet quarterly to discuss and update material • Connect with businesses in the area and help them prepare • Make the team available to help these businesses basically for the first 24-48 hours or until we can get them handed off to the right people. Here is an additional comment from the businessman: “There is much to do in the first 24 hours of the ransom, if you handle it wrong, it may affect a positive outcome. I find it sad that these crimes are so large and we have no one available from the local police or county to help. Our IT team at the City of Elk River is trained on this. I asked them. I'll bet they are at the county level also. We could help our community so much with your support on this. It's so simple. They need some basic hardware and software, some information on what the next steps are and some hand holding. This would not be expensive or complicated. All I need from you two (Sheriff and Mayor) is approval to work with your IT staffs.” Mayor Dietz told the businessman he would do some research on this topic and get back to him. His main issue was using city personnel to work on private business computers. The Elk River Vision A welcoming community with revolutionary and spirited resourcefulness, exceptional service, and community engagement that encourages and inspires prosperity