Letters

A shout out to Mark Bernardo for bringing the issue of cybersecurity to the fore in his campaign for Southampton Town clerk. Although some interpreted his concern as misguided, in the wrong lane, and something for the IT department to worry about, I think Mark completely understands the interrelationship between IT and the role of town clerk.

It was just this past June when Governor Kathy Hochul signed S.7672A/A.6769A, which intends to improve New York State’s ability to respond to threats, safeguard critical infrastructure and reduce statewide cybersecurity risks. Among other things, this is what the law requires. It mandates annual cybersecurity awareness training for all state and local government employees.

Clearly, staying aware of and ahead of cybersecurity attacks resides not solely with the IT department but everyone involved in the acquisition, recording and archiving of data. Of course, that includes the town clerk and the town clerk’s staff. As department head, the town clerk will be very much involved in ensuring that the proper training is accomplished, no one is left out, and everyone understands the training material.

This is what New York Association of Towns Executive Director Christopher A. Koetzle said: “Municipalities face ever-increasing and sophisticated cyber threats. I applaud the governor and the legislature for helping to better protect our local governments across the state and giving them more tools to prepare for and respond to these growing threats. NYAOT has long stood in partnership with NYMIR in its mission of delivering cybersecurity training to each of our member towns, and this bill will ensure that more towns make training a priority in the coming years.”

If you read Mark Bernardo’s October 16 letter to The Press [“Cyber Audit Needed”], I think you’ll agree that he’s very much on top of this and in the right lane.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Anthony is a former chair of the Southampton Democratic Committee — Ed.