Cherry Hill Boosts Cybersecurity With New Website Address

CHERRY HILL, NJ — In an effort to boost the township’s cybersecurity efforts, Cherry Hill has changed the URL for its website to chnj.gov, township officials announced on Monday.

The change also makes it easier for residents to access information concerning Cherry Hill online, officials said. Nothing else about the website has changed.

The change was made in the wake of new bipartisan federal legislation passed late last year that makes it easier for local governments to register a .gov domain address, according to Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Shin Angulo.

Among other things, the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act removed a $400 annual fee that was previously required to maintain a .gov domain.

Cybersecurity efforts are boosted because .gov is a trusted top level domain and includes more security features than commercial web domains, like .com typically have.

“Using those less secure domains allows cybercriminals to more easily impersonate government officials to defraud the public and get citizens to share sensitive information,” the act reads. “The Act would provide support services, security enhancements, and dedicated outreach to help state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to adopt the .gov domain, improving cybersecurity and trust in public services across the United States.”

Previously, Cherry Hill was under the CherryHill-NJ.com URL. While this URL will redirect to the township’s new domain, officials advise residents to update any bookmarks to specific webpages on the site.

“With this added layer of security, our residents and businesses will now have a greater peace of mind when interacting with us online,” Angulo said. “This move represents an important step forward in ensuring our municipal government embraces innovation and remains accessible and open to all.”

All township employee email addresses will also switch over to using the new domain as well, but all emails sent to old addresses will also be redirected to the new domain on an ongoing basis.