While the county’s existing security protocols and procedures minimized any harm from the attack, it exposed potential vulnerabilities in the county’s technology infrastructure. After security assessments by Cisco, Accenture, Microsoft, the county’s Internal Services Department (ISD) and the Office of the CIO (OCIO), ISD was directed to centralize security functions within a focused cybersecurity organization to provide “essential security functions to all county departments.”
To meet this challenge, the ISD Information Technology Services (ITS) Division restructured the Computing Services Branch (CSB) to concentrate solely on cybersecurity.
ISD provides a range of support services to other county departments involved in purchasing, contracting, facilities, IT and other support services. The department, under the leadership of recently appointed Director Selwyn Hollins, is responsible for:
- $6 billion in goods and services purchased annually
- Maintaining 13 million square feet of property
- Supporting 40,000 personal computers
To meet the security mandate challenge, ITS restructured CSB to focus solely on cybersecurity. The newly formed Cyber Governance and Operations Branch (CGO) will focus on the following five areas:
- Endpoints
- Secure access
- Data center
- Security analytics
- Governance
In Los Angeles County government, “every department has a Departmental Information Security Officer (DISO) that works on (security) policies and strategies and who supports the countywide strategies, but they are often tasked with operational work,” Fagundo told Techwire. “The creation of the CGO will support the DISOs by freeing up their time from operational work by providing centralized security tools.”
According to an ISD document: “By creating a centralized organization within ISD, CGO staff will focus on ensuring security measures are standardized, management tools are engineered to address departmental business needs, and the latest technologies are employed synergistically to maximize security and resources.”
Wesolik added that ISD’s goal was to “realign the entire IT operations to support modern-day IT.”
“If you think about what’s critical in today’s IT world, cybersecurity is one of the biggest topics,” Wesolik told Techwire. “We had a small division trying to operate security measures, and as a result, the county was vulnerable.
“Due to a cyberattack and COVID, we were forced to make this change in the midst of a pandemic,” Wesolik said. “We had been working toward these transitions, but it was clear that we needed to do it now.”
Although the decision to establish the CGO was made before the countywide stay-at-home order and the subsequent surge in county employees working from home, security-related policies needed to be adjusted to support the increase in remote network access.
“We had to alter things a little bit,” Fagundo said. “Before (the work-from-home order) we would have about 1,200 employees working from home; now we have 30,000, so we had to be more strict with the remote access and compliance. We also had to extend the scanning, so we put agents on the laptops employees bring home, so they get scanned regularly, whether that employee comes into the office or not.”
Using Tenable, the county scans the security perimeter daily.
“In the past, if security risks were identified, a department would be notified and responsible to make changes,” Wesolik said. “If the department had other priorities, then the problem could linger.” With the new governance model, service level agreements will be in a place where the department will have limited time to respond, and the response will be managed by ISD.
Service level agreements have been established and are being socialized with the departments.
“The Office of the CIO and our team are working together with departments to get the information out,” Fagundo said.
The ISD Business Relationship Management (BRM) Team is also playing a big role in working with departments to communicate the change.
As a result of the creation of the Cyber Governance and Operations organization, some of the other four existing branches have taken on additional responsibilities, and one underwent a name change.
Shared Services Branch (SSB)
The Shared Services Branch (SSB), under the leadership of Deputy General Manager Benny Chacko, has added several divisions from the Computing Services Branch. The branch, which was already responsible for operations, including desktop computer support, centralized email services, and the county’s 411 call center, has been tasked with additional responsibilities.
According to Wesolik, “we (ISD) are aligning resources across the organization to be more relevant. Data center and cloud operations are now merged into one service delivery under SSB, which makes sense.”
Communications and Mobility Services Branch (CMS)
The Telecommunications Branch, currently without a permanent deputy general manager, manages a communications network of more than 13,000 mobile phones, 800 network locations and 100,000 telephone lines. The Countywide Integrated Radio System (CWIRS) has also gone through a reorganization and name change. Now known as the Communications and Mobility Services Branch (CMS), CMS expanded operations to offer modernized services and supporting remote services, including call centers, Wi-Fi and cellular options, and adding an Innovation Division. This realignment is more suited to meeting the countywide IT strategic goal set by the OCIO of “Mobility: Accelerate mobility for employees and residents to deliver services anywhere at any time.”
Customer Applications Branch (CAB)
Under the direction of Trinh Mac, a 30-year county IT veteran, the Customer Applications Branch (CAB) develops custom applications and provides department system maintenance. In an effort to support work-from-home management, CAB expanded capabilities of an employee check-in tool to include productivity tracking and space reservation to support a return to work.
Business Management Branch
The Business Management Branch, led by Robert King, was established in late 2019 to manage customer-centric organizations as well as internal administration. Enterprise projects, including a new online billing system that provides transparency by using clear language, and the direction of the Business Relationship Management (BRM) all fall under the Business Management Branch.
