Press Release  Healey-Driscoll Administration Announces 2024 Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Training Grant Program Awards

BOSTON — Today, the Healey-Driscoll Administration announced the 2024 Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program award recipients. Administered by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security and its Office of Municipal and School Technology, this program will provide 78,000 employees from 227 municipalities and public school districts across Massachusetts with critical cybersecurity training to better detect and avoid cyber threats.

The 2024 Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program is designed to support local government efforts to improve overall cyber readiness through comprehensive online end-user training, evaluation and threat simulation. Awarded communities will receive licenses for end-user training, assessment and phishing simulation procured by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS).

Program participants begin their training with an initial cyber strength assessment to measure baseline cybersecurity awareness. Following the assessments, periodic assessments consisting of training modules and simulated phishing email campaigns help participants build good cyber hygiene habits to increase their awareness of deceptive techniques used by bad actors to gain unauthorized access to government systems. At the end of the program, participants complete a final cyber strength assessment to measure their progress.

“Our administration is committed to partnering with our municipalities to move forward on our shared IT and cybersecurity goals” said Governor Maura Healey. “We are thrilled to see so many cities and towns prioritize cyber readiness through the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Training Grant Program.”

“Programs like the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant really move the needle with our municipal workforce, which is where the rubber meets the road on cybersecurity,” said Lt. Governor Kimberley Driscoll. “This program, provided at no cost to municipalities or employees taking the training, makes clear that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, whether we have IT in our job titles or not.”

“In my time as the Commonwealth CIO I’ve had a chance to talk to municipal officials from all over the state.”  said Secretary of Technology Services and Security Jason Snyder. “In every discussion, cybersecurity comes up as a top priority. EOTSS is proud to advance the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s priority of supporting municipal cybersecurity readiness. We work best in Massachusetts when state and municipal organizations work together, and this grant program exemplifies this commitment.”

The Commonwealth offers the training program free to municipal organizations, who are further supported with quarterly threat briefings and weekly newsletters with cybersecurity best practices and program updates provided by the EOTSS Office of Municipal and School Technology. Municipal information technology officials also receive monthly summary progress reports that detail the number of employees who inadvertently clicked on malicious links contained in the simulated phishing emails, offering important visibility on the threat landscape.

In addition to the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program, The Healey-Driscoll Administration offers a number of other programs to further support municipal officials in their cybersecurity and information technology modernization efforts, including a Free Cybersecurity Health Check Program, the Community Compact IT Grant Program, and the Community Compact Municipal Fiber Grant Program.

For more on the Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program, visit: https://www.mass.gov/municipal-cybersecurity-awareness-grant-program.

For more information on the full list of municipal cybersecurity and IT program offerings from the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security’s Office of Municipal and School Technology, visit: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/all-office-of-municipal-and-school-technology-omst-programs.

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