DECORAH — The Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously renewed its contract with Ricoh USA for copier and printer services and reviewed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for CrowdStrike Endpoint Protection, a cybersecurity program used across county systems.
Jon Lubke, IT & GIS director, presented both agenda items, beginning with the Ricoh copier contract renewal. "We've been with Ricoh [actually] for seven plus years," Lubke said. "Before my time, too."
Lubke explained that the county previously had separate contracts for different offices and buildings, but consolidated agreements began roughly seven years ago. He expressed confidence in Ricoh, noting the county's decreasing cost per print, or "click rate."
The contract renewal process proved competitive. "This whole process has been challenging," Lubke admitted. "We've had four different vendors come in, look at our environment, propose different things, and just when I get ready to make a decision, then, you know, somebody comes in with a slightly better offer."
Despite reviewing competing bids, the county ultimately opted to stay with Ricoh, securing what Lubke described as a favorable financial arrangement. "Right now we're spending less than we did on our previous contracts," he noted.
The board unanimously approved the Ricoh contract, a 60-month agreement.
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County Strengthens Cybersecurity with CrowdStrike Agreement
Following the copier contract discussion, Lubke shifted focus to cybersecurity, introducing the MOU for CrowdStrike Endpoint Protection. "As you're aware, we've been working with the state for almost two years. [And] their endpoint protection software is called CrowdStrike," he said. "We have that installed on all of our devices.. all the way down to workstations and laptops."
Lubke detailed how CrowdStrike provides continuous security monitoring, detecting malware, viruses and other cyber threats. "We have a dashboard we can log into. We can see where we're missing security updates and patches," he explained. He highlighted how the software's 24/7 monitoring feature efficently alerts the county to potential security breaches. "Typically, it's a false alarm, but when they call us, we take it very, very seriously because it could be somebody trying to break into our system."
The state of Iowa has adopted CrowdStrike across nearly all counties and major municipalities to prevent widespread cyberattacks. "All of the cities and counties work together so closely, even if one entity were to be compromised, it would spread very, very quickly," Lubke said.
He estimated that utilizing CrowdStrike through the state's partnership saves the county approximately $10,000 annually.
The MOU was accepted, with a motion from Supervisor Steve Kelsay and a second from Supervisor Shirley Vermace.