'It's A Must:' Burlington Shoring Up Cyber Defense

BURLINGTON, MA — The town is taking steps to protect itself against potential cybercrime following several high-profile and costly attacks on communities and organizations across the country.

The Board of Selectmen on Monday night voted to approve an expansive cybersecurity policy, a key first step in protecting Burlington against an increasingly common type of crippling attack.

"Therefore, it is essential that the Town of Burlington ... take steps in advance to prevent an attack, while at the same time preparing to detect, mitigate and recover from an attack, should one occur," a presenting slide from the proposed policy read.

In relatively lay terms, ransomware attacks encrypt systems and disable operations until a ransom is paid to the hackers in exchange for the encryption key — in the case of municipalities, critical services could be held up. In other instances, sensitive information might be stolen with the threat it could be released.

"It's a must," Selectman Nicholas Priest said. "There's no way around this."

Priest said the town's size and budget make it an "ever more present target for people who want to prey on us."

Some ransoms can get up to seven figures.

Selectman Robert Hogan said the town may need people to come in and educate community leaders in the basics of cybersecurity to help get everyone up to speed.

The need for cybersecurity has been underlined by a recent attack on the Steamship Authority, which impacted the ferry service from the Cape. Several American companies have also been victimized in recent months.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Burlington Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.