Houston Public Library Aims to Strengthen Cyber Defenses

The city of Houston is soliciting proposals from IT firms to support a shift to fully managed cybersecurity services for the Houston Public Library (HPL) across its 43 branches.

The library aims to strengthen its cyber defenses by contracting with one or more vendors who can provide round-the-clock security operations and technical support under the Federal Communications Commission’s three-year Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program.

According to the city’s request for proposals (RFP), the effort is part of the library's broader plan to modernize its information security posture and ensure uninterrupted access to digital services for the more than 3 million annual visitors who use its public computing infrastructure.

The initiative will focus on endpoint protection, system restore and reboot protection, identity protection and authentication, incident response monitoring and network performance monitoring.

The library seeks a managed solution to safeguard about 1,000 public-facing Windows machines used by patrons. The desired setup includes real-time threat detection and centralized reporting, supported by 24/7 security operations center services. Identity and access management services will also play a key role, with requirements for multifactor authentication, privileged access controls and secure role-based authentication protocols.

Awarded vendors will be expected to provide ongoing documentation, training, compliance reporting and audit support throughout the project term.

More detailed information about RFP No. CBR420250677, including all submission requirements and requests, can be found online. Proposals must be submitted by Aug. 8 via email to both the library’s point of contact, Charles Bauer, and its consultant, Ben Sniecinski.