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Dallas to Buy Cyber Attack Alert System After Police, Other Agencies Hit by Ransomware Attack

The City Council, without discussion, approved allowing Houston-based technology service provider Netsync Network Solutions to help the city get a threat and anomaly detection system for the Information and Technology Services Department for three years.

The Dallas City Council approved a nearly $4 million deal Wednesday to get a new system that alerts the city’s information technology department of possible cyber attacks. The approval comes as the city is nearly two months into its recovery from a ransomware attack.

The City Council, without discussion, approved allowing Houston-based technology service provider Netsync Network Solutions to help the city get a threat and anomaly detection system for the Information and Technology Services Department for three years. City documents refer to the purchase as a system upgrade that will include security monitoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A week before the May 3 ransomware attack, the City Council also approved a three-year, more than $873,000 contract with Netsync for the group to help the city get a threat detection option for devices such as city servers and employees’ desktops and laptop computers.