Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program
The Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program is a program offered by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) Office of Municipal and School Technology to support local government efforts to improve overall cybersecurity posture through comprehensive online end-user training, evaluation, and threat simulation. Awards can be made available for employees in all municipal functions that have a government-issued email address, including municipal administration, school and public safety officials.
Community Compact Cabinet Information Technology Grant Program
Offered through the Governor’s Community Compact, this competitive municipal Information Technology (IT) grant program is focused on making communities more efficient and innovative while improving their technology infrastructure. Using the transformative powers of IT, we can drive innovation, make government more efficient, save taxpayer money, and make it easier for residents to interact and transact with their local government.
Community Compact Cabinet IT Best Practice Program
This program is offered through the Community Compact Best Practices Program to improve municipal government operations and services. Among the IT Best Practice services offered is a cybersecurity assessment to identify risks - both human and technological - within the IT environment, analyze and identify gaps in existing cybersecurity processes, assess vulnerability to an external attack and identify steps to remediate identified issues.
Municipal Cybersecurity Health Check Program
EOTSS also maintains a Cybersecurity Health Check Program that provides opportunities for local government to access basic cyber security services at no cost. These services can be a good first step in discovering, assessing, and identifying cyber security gaps that could impact IT systems that support essential business functions.
Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) program provides state, local, tribal and territorial emergency management agencies with the resources required to work toward the National Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient nation. Pending the availability of funds, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency - through an annual sub-grant application process - makes EMPG funding available to all communities and Tribes in the Commonwealth through their local emergency management department. EMPG funds may be used to support local and/or regional emergency management activities in the following cost categories: Planning, Organizational, Equipment, Training, and Exercises.
State Homeland Security Grant Program
The federal State Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funds a range of preparedness activities to assist efforts in preventing, protecting against, mitigating, responding to and recovering from acts of terrorism and other threats, like cybersecurity. State government agencies, state authorities, state universities and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for State-Share HSGP grant funding for a project that supports a homeland security priority. Municipalities are not eligible to apply.
Mass Cyber Center Minimum Baselines of Cybersecurity
The Minimum Baseline of Cybersecurity is a framework for helping Massachusetts municipalities improve their cybersecurity posture and protect their municipality from cyberattacks using people, process, and technology. The Mass Cyber Center provides PDF downloads and video tutorials for municipalities to achieve a minimum baseline of cybersecurity.
State and Local Cybersecurity Grants (Federal)
The federal Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act that was signed into law by President Biden included $1 billion over the next four years for a State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. 80 percent of funding is to be awarded to local, tribal and territorial governments (25 percent to rural areas based on census data). State CIOs are to serve as primary officials to manage and allocate funding. More information will be posted here when the Notice of Funding Opportunity is made available by CISA.