However, he always has cybersecurity at top of mind for the city of about 165,000. Resto has served the city for five years and recently gave an update on the city’s cyber stance. Resto assured members that the city is doing well, according to its yearly system audit. He and his team meet regularly as part of the Department of Information Resources cyber initiatives, attend MS-ISAC meetings, attend security conferences and keep up with federal bulletins and emails.
“We’re continually being vigilant in cybersecurity,” he said. “Over time, [the council has] invested $26 million, and this is an investment into technology to make sure we have the equipment that we need.
“We’re in good shape. We’ve got the technology, and I said in 2019 that my main objective was to bring our technology swagger back, and we’re almost there.”
Among the actions the Killeen IT shop takes are basics such as installing firewalls and evangelizing individual security hygiene, but he also outlined various tech tools that are employed:
- Cisco Umbrella
- Cohesity
- Barracuda Networks
- A network performance monitor
Practices include:
- Scheduled updates and replacements
- Cybersecurity training
- Phishing checks
- IT newsletter to city employees
Killeen’s adopted 2023-2024 budget reflects $6 million for the IT department’s internal services fund. The department includes operations, network and GIS.
