Cybercriminals don’t just go after big corporations and hospitals. Increasingly, they’re setting their sights on your local township, county, or municipality. If you work in local government, or support one, understanding why these organizations are targeted is the first step toward doing something about it.
Shoreline Technology Solutions provides managed IT services for local governments across West Michigan, and we’ve seen firsthand how under-resourced these organizations can be when a cyber incident strikes. The good news is that the right IT support can change that equation significantly.
These aren’t hypothetical risks. Cyberattacks on local governments are happening constantly, and the consequences are severe. In one of the most striking local examples, hackers stole roughly $30 million from White Lake Township during the closing of a municipal bond sale. Criminals gained access to township email, impersonated an official, and redirected a wire transfer to a fraudulent account. About $21.3 million was eventually recovered, but the damage to operations and public trust was immediate.
Why Local Governments Are in the Crosshairs
They Hold Valuable Data
Local governments sit on a goldmine of sensitive information including voter records, tax data, payroll systems, court records, utility accounts, and more. That data is valuable to cybercriminals for identity theft, fraud, and extortion. And unlike a private business that might choose to keep a breach quiet, government agencies are often required by law to disclose incidents publicly, which adds reputational pressure on top of operational disruption.
Limited IT Resources and Aging Infrastructure
Most local governments operate with lean budgets and minimal in-house IT staff. That often means aging hardware, unpatched software, and security gaps that go undetected for months or even years. Cybercriminals know this. They actively look for organizations where the defenses are thin and the data is rich.
Managed IT services level the playing field. Rather than relying on a single generalist to handle everything from network maintenance to cybersecurity, a managed IT services provider brings a full team of specialists at a predictable monthly cost, without the overhead of full-time employees.
Ransomware Pays Off
Local governments are considered “high-value, low-resistance” targets by ransomware groups. Public services can’t simply shut down while a breach is investigated. When a city’s permitting system goes offline, or a county’s 911 dispatch is disrupted, the pressure to pay a ransom and restore operations quickly is immense. Attackers count on that urgency.
Remote Work and Expanded Attack Surfaces
The shift to hybrid and remote work environments has expanded the attack surface for government networks. Employees accessing systems from home devices, using personal email, or connecting over unsecured Wi-Fi all create new entry points. Without proper endpoint management and security policies in place, each of those connections is a potential vulnerability.
Phishing and Social Engineering Still Work
Government employees, like employees everywhere, are human. Phishing emails that impersonate vendors, state agencies, or department leadership continue to be one of the most common ways attackers gain initial access. Staff training and email filtering are critical, and both are areas where managed IT services for local governments can make an immediate difference.
What Good IT Services for Local Governments Look Like
Effective IT support for municipalities goes beyond just keeping the lights on. It includes:
- Proactive monitoring of networks, servers, and endpoints around the clock
- Patch management to keep software and systems current and secure
- Multi-factor authentication and access controls to limit exposure
- Security awareness training to reduce the risk of human error
- Backup and disaster recovery planning so operations can be restored quickly after an incident
- Compliance support for frameworks like CJIS, HIPAA (for health-related departments), and state-level requirements
The Bottom Line
Local governments aren’t soft targets by choice; they’re under-resourced by circumstance. But that doesn’t have to be the reality. With the right managed IT partner, even small municipalities can implement enterprise-grade security practices without blowing their budgets. If your township, city, or county is ready to take a closer look at its cybersecurity posture, we’d welcome the conversation. Contact Shoreline Technology Solutions to get started.
President / Network Architect
Mark Kolean always had a fascination with technology from the time he was 3 and his gift of the Atari 2600 to current. In 1990 at the age of 14 Mark got his first job in customer support for a mail order business supporting Tandy TSR-80 computer software shipped on cassette tape. A few years later Mark was building hundreds of 286, 386, and 486 computers for the new emerging DOS & Windows 3.1 computers that had exploded on the market.
After a college career studying business and technology Mark Started Shoreline Computer Systems in 1999 at the height of the dot.com boom with the looming crisis of the year2k bug just around the corner. In the early 2000’s a lot of work was done with early network systems including Lantastic, Novell, and Windows NT Server. Mark became a community contributor to the Small Business Specialist community that revolved around Small Business Server 2000-2011 which focused on single or dual server environments for businesses up to 50 in size. Networks during this time frame mostly had a break fix relationship in which work was billed only when a problem occurred.
In the 2010’s Microsoft released their first cloud based software called Microsoft BPOS which would in later become known as Microsoft Office 365. This introduced a new model in technology with pay as you go subscription services. Starting in 2013 Mark’s team at Shoreline Computer System rebranded as Shoreline Technology Solutions to focus on the transition to become proactive and less reactive to data backup and security needs. Starting in 2018 all customers are required to have a backup management plan in place as a center point with the full understanding that if STS isn’t watching the customer’s data, then no one is.
Now in Mark’s 22 years of business he is building a company emphasis of how to help customers retire servers and build networks completely in the cloud.
