Buffalo, NY - Today, Mayor Byron W. Brown announced a new partnership between the City of Buffalo and a leading cyber security platform, CrowdStrike, that will further protect the City of Buffalo from ransomware attacks and digital viruses that can debilitate our IT systems. This roll out is a part of a shared services program created by Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State Office of Information Technology Services (“ITS”) and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (“DHSES”) that allotted $30 million towards assisting municipalities across the state with cyber security technology. The City of Buffalo will be the first beneficiary of the work that was produced from New York State’s recently announced Joint Security Operations Center, an innovative partnership that brings together multiple levels of government across New York State to collaborate on solutions and cybersecurity assets as one conglomerate.
“In this digitized world, we have a responsibility to protect ourselves, our residents, and the partners we interact with, from viruses and ransomware. The Joint Security Operations Center has selected an industry leading cyber security platform to deploy in municipalities across the State. Buffalo is proud to be the first municipality to implement CrowdStrike, continuing my Administration’s longstanding commitment to make Buffalo as efficient and as safe as possible,” said Mayor Brown.
The Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC) was launched in February of this year to serve as the center for local, state, and federal cyber security efforts. This partnership allows for comprehensive data collection, critical information sharing and collaborative response efforts against cyber-attacks. Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, along with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, and cyber leaders across the state, are part of the first-of-its-kind cyber command center that will provide a statewide view of the cyber-threat landscape and improve coordination on threat intelligence and incident response.
As part of the shared services program, New York’s counties, and the State’s initial JSOC partners, including the Cities of Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, and Yonkers, will be offered CrowdStrike endpoint detection and response (EDR) services at no cost. EDR is a technology used to protect computers or servers, often called endpoints, by monitoring and reacting to cyber threats in real-time. These services can protect entire networks by detecting and isolating a compromised endpoint and will enable New York State cyber security teams to effectively track sophisticated attacks and promptly uncover incidents, as well as triage, validate and prioritize them, leading to faster and more precise remediation.
The City of Buffalo will realize a savings of $75,000 per year with the implantation of an upgrade to CrowdStrike from the current cyber security software.