Lake County panel OKs $64,855 contract for continuous external threat monitoring

The Lake County Technology Committee authorized a $64,855 contract with CDW-G on May 1 to deploy continuous external threat monitoring across more than 200 county web sites and internet-facing services.

Chris Blanding, the county CIO, said the tool will scan the county's externally exposed systems and work with the county's security platform to generate tickets for rapid mitigation. “It scans our network, our systems, on a periodic basis and helps uncover threats or gaps or vulnerabilities so that we can address them quicker,” Blanding said.

CTO Eric Carlson described the approach as part of an "attack surface management" program: automated discovery of exposed services, version inventories and near-real-time alerts when zero-day vulnerabilities are discovered. Carlson warned that attackers now use AI to automate probing for weaknesses and that continuous monitoring helps reduce the window of exposure.

Vice Chair Kasman moved to approve the contract; Member Frank seconded the motion and the committee approved it by voice vote. Committee members also discussed scheduling a broader security-program briefing next month so the board can see how the monitoring tool fits with cloud backup, incident response and other cybersecurity work.

The contract procures external scanning and monitoring only; implementation details, expected service level times for remediation and vendor integration steps will be addressed by IT during the security program briefing.