Cybersecurity and resilience tips from the city of Atlanta CIO

Four pillars for success

Brantley said he created an IT organization capable of addressing both current needs and future scenarios by focusing on the following four pillars.

Gary Brantley

Strengthen the core. "We wanted to stabilize the infrastructure inside of the city of Atlanta, we wanted to develop [and] implement IT standards, processes and procedures, and define an IT operating model with clear accountability," Brantley said.

Increased alignment. "We wanted to align delivery of services to the city of Atlanta by improving trust and engagement with our different departments," he noted. "We wanted to find common priorities with [those departments] and we wanted quick wins; we wanted to define enterprise standards and, at the same time, have a strategic plan in the works."

Innovate and accelerate. "We wanted to enhance the end-user experience," Brantley said, adding that to do that "we needed to continue to innovate and make sure we were accelerating at a decent pace."

Application modernization. "We wanted to focus on: What do we need to modernize, what do we need to invest in, [and] what do we need to retire and eliminate?" he said.

Brantley said he tied the following four focus areas into the pillars.

1. operational improvement;
2. strong infrastructure and security;
3. business engagement and alignment; and
4. talent capable of ensuring the organization is set up for the future.

Brantley and his team adopted the 5-5-5 concept to propel work forward -- a concept that had IT asking what it could tackle in five days, what it could do in five weeks and what could be completed in five months.

"You'd be surprised at what you can do in that amount of time if your focus is intentional," he said.

Testing out the new IT

Brantley's revamped IT department had an opportunity to test out -- and ultimately prove -- the value of its new cybersecurity and resilience approach in February 2019, when the NFL held the Super Bowl in Atlanta.

"This was an opportunity to not only galvanize our public and private partnerships to get them in line with what we were doing in the city and also to have conversations with them, but also a chance to show the entire world that the city of Atlanta has rebounded and will not have [another attack] happen while the whole world is watching," he said.

The Super Bowl, which brought more than 500,000 visitors to Atlanta, is classified as a high-risk event for cyber activity; it's labeled as SEAR 1 -- the highest rating -- by the Department of Homeland Security.

The major event provided Brantley with an opportunity to build new partnerships with regional agencies "to create centralized information and workflow around security efforts," he said.

Those new partnerships brought together professionals, who with the city, ran through various security scenarios that could play out during an event like the Super Bowl, helping the city to prepare and to build resiliency while also laying the groundwork for such cooperative work on a regular basis.

Additionally, the effort showed Brantley that, to successfully prepare for such events, it is critical to do the following when it comes to cybersecurity and resilience:

1. engage security experts early;
2. run through multi-agency tabletop exercises;
3. have frequent and consistent communication;
4. shut down major projects for a stretch of time to better focus on immediate needs; and
5. ensure alignment across the leadership team.

"And [finally], ensure your enterprise risk assessment is complete and that you're focusing on it and that it is something you're very intentional about cleaning up. If you have issues that you know about, it's very important that you take the opportunity and time to clean them up," he said.

Additional steps toward building organizational resilience

Brantley also cited his creation of the Atlanta CIO Advisory Board as instrumental to the IT department's current success as it enabled a cross-functional, strategic collaboration among thought leaders and industry professionals from both the private and public sectors.

"Don't be afraid to ask for help. We knew we couldn't do this alone. And it has proved to be very advantageous for us," he said. "We wanted forethought, we wanted innovative practices, we wanted collaboration and investment opportunity. This board has provided a pathway for that to happen."

During the presentation, Brantley discussed how Atlanta was further tested in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the city's digital initiatives as city hall moved into more virtual operations. Later in the year came ramped-up cybercriminal activities happening simultaneously to civil unrest associated with the year's social justice movements.

But, two years after suffering a ransomware attack, the city of Atlanta and its IT team were prepared for what came their way, Brantley said, leaning on their increased agility and resiliency, improved communications abilities, operational excellence and solid business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

"Those were all areas that helped us get through these times," Brantley said. "We were able to look to see if what we were doing -- is it paying off? Are we holding up? And we absolutely did. The team, the city of Atlanta, we were able to keep our systems up and running."