On the September 12th board call, one of my favorite dudes, Scott Joyce, said it would be his last meeting after nine years of service to TAGITM. Not going to lie, folks, it bummed me out. It’s that same deal when someone retires and you’re so happy for them, but then you realize they’ll be riding off into the sunset holding one of their beloved and comically fruity adult beverages of choice and you’re not going to hang with them as much. I’ve had the privilege of serving with Scott the past few years, and man, has it been fun. Straight up awesome guy. He’ll still be around, obviously, but now I’m going to have to think twice before ordering fruity drinks around board members because Scott won’t be there to deflect scrutiny. THANKS SCOTT! Of course, I’m kidding bro. Thank you for your exceptional leadership and the many years you gave to TAGITM. I hope you enjoy every bit of that newfound time you’re going to have. Maybe you’ll have time to figure out that whole hot tub fiasco Monica "Mom Jeans" Liwag from CDWG ratted on you about.

By Kevin A. Joiner, CCISP, Chief Information Security Officer, Brazos County, Texas

Cybersecurity is all the rage these days, unfortunately. AI has made local government jobs both easier and harder as we prepare to mitigate attacks from cyber-crime organizations and nation-states. AI integration into many of the security products we use allows for large amounts of data to be analyzed very quickly. This helps reduce false positives in our alerting infrastructure and allows us to spend our time remediating obviously malicious attacks. However, our adversaries are also using AI to create better and more believable phishing campaigns, generate code, and analyze data. This means that these attacks will be less likely to be caught by the ‘good AI.’

By Lana Spiess, IT Director, Comal County, Texas

Save the date: The 2025 TAGITM Annual Conference will be held Tuesday, April 22-Friday, April 25 at the beautiful La Cantera Resort in San Antonio. Your Annual Conference Committee has already started planning the fun for 2025! A conference planning kick-off meeting was held September 18 and our first order of business is to choose a conference theme that sets the tone for the event. The always popular golf tournament will be coming back, too!

By Angie Wright, Chief Technology Officer, City of Beaumont, Texas

The Education Committee is excited to announce that planning for our regional events is nearly complete, and we can’t wait to see you there! This year’s theme is Bits, Bytes, and Brainstorming, where we’ll have "bits" of small group discussions, "bytes" covering bigger topics, and, of course, coffee will be on hand. We'll dive into key topics such as CJIS technical changes, AI in government, Zero Trust security, and virtualization. Take advantage of the coffee hour to network with peers and stay current on the latest trends in technology. Keep an eye on your inbox for more details—don’t miss out!

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