Hello TAGITM folks!

By the time you read this, the board will have completed the annual strategic planning session in Waco. While we have regular board meetings all year, the strategic planning session is where the new, off-the-wall ideas are born. Anything and everything is on the table for discussion about how to make TAGITM an even greater value for our members. I know I said it last month, but I’ll throw it out there again: We love to hear your new ideas and suggestions. The place to send anything you think might make TAGITM a better organization is info@tagitm.org.

Speaking of new things, be sure to read up on the new Texas laws that were recently passed. Specifically, HB3834 relates to a requirement that local government employees complete an annual cybersecurity training program. While I think the majority of us have some kind of training program in place for our users, we now have to make this a priority and adhere to certain guidelines.

I can’t say enough about the positive effects that a good training program will have on your users. Some will whine and complain, but in my experience, the majority will value the knowledge they gain. They will walk away with more technical knowledge, more efficient ways to work, and maybe they’ll think twice before opening that strange attachment. If you can get even a few users to think before they click, that’s a success. While the new law relates specifically to security training, I think it opens the door to offer multiple sessions throughout the year on anything and everything that relates to your operation.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

Scott Joyce

TAGITM President

TML has had a busy year tracking city related legislation and lobbying on behalf of their member cities. There were over 2,000 city related bills introduced and more than 330 passed. Among the bills passed into law were four cybersecurity bills that may be of particular interest to our members.

By Dan Swinhoe, ITWorld
A long-term, large scale attack targeting telecom companies around the world has been discovered. The attack, dubbed Operation Soft Cell by security firm Cybereason, saw hundreds of gigabytes of information exfiltrated. The company claims the attackers had total control of compromised networks and could have easily brought down entire cellular networks if they so wished.

By Natalie Lambert, Entrepreneur.com
Employees have reached their breaking point. More than 90 percent admit to discarding data without fully reading it, and more than half say too much information causes their quality of work to suffer. When you add up all the time they waste wading through data, it amounts to a full workday each week.

By Lucas Mearian, Computerworld
Facebook's plans to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet for users to make online purchases and money transfers should have the financial services community in a tither, with some expecting banks to quickly follow Facebook's lead. The social network's shift into financial services also has raised the specter of regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency.

By Gregg Keizer, IT News
Mozilla this week touted Firefox's anti-ad tracking talents by urging users of other browsers to load 100 tabs to trick those trackers into offering goods and services suitable for someone in the 1%, an end-times devotee and other archetypes. Tagged as "Track THIS," the only-semi-tongue-in-cheek project lets users select from four personas - including "hypebeast," "filthy rich," "doomsday prepper" and "influencer" - for illustrative purposes. Track THIS then opens 100 tabs "to fool trackers into thinking you're someone else."

By Hardeep Matharu, The Independent
The Pentagon coordinates the U.S.'s nuclear weapons – using a floppy disk, as it turns out. A new report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the country’s department of defense is still using 1970s-era computer systems that require the original eight-inch floppy disks.