{"id":186512,"date":"2026-02-11T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/williamson-county-ill-approves-cybersecurity-pact\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T18:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:00:10","slug":"williamson-county-ill-approves-cybersecurity-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/williamson-county-ill-approves-cybersecurity-pact\/","title":{"rendered":"Williamson County, Ill., Approves Cybersecurity Pact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williamson County, Ill., Approves Cybersecurity Pact<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/security\/williamson-county-ill-approves-cybersecurity-pact<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-11 17:19:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.govtech.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

(TNS) \u2014 Williamson County commissioners approved a new three-year Microsoft 365 and cybersecurity agreement Tuesday, saying the county must continue adding digital protections as email and account breaches become more common.Board members said the decision comes despite frustration over rising technology costs and limited control over changes driven by large software companies.James Mayer, CEO of Mayer Networks, told commissioners the county\u2019s experience mirrors what his company has seen with other clients since moving away from in-house email systems. He said security problems became more frequent after organizations transitioned to Microsoft 365.\u201cWay back in the day, decade ago, we used to host Microsoft Exchange in-house,\u201d Mayer said.Mayer said his company began noticing account compromises soon after the transition. He said those breaches can spread quickly once a user account is accessed.\u201cAs we were doing this stuff, we started seeing ramifications of it on the other side. And then accounts were getting breached,\u201d Mayer said.Commissioner Jim Rasor said the board is placed in a difficult position because county offices handle sensitive public data. He said the risk of exposure outweighs the cost concerns.\u201cProtecting the data that we have here is so important,\u201d Rasor said.Chairman Tim Atkisson said commissioners rely on technical experts when making decisions outside their own experience.\u201cAs long as if we\u2019re spending this money, as long as we\u2019re getting the protection right, and as little as I know about it, I\u2019m satisfied that we\u2019re getting the protection,\u201d Atkisson said.The board approved the Microsoft 365 and cybersecurity agreement at a monthly cost of $13,124.35. Commissioners also approved an additional cybersecurity suite add-on from Mayer Networks at $12.29 per license.The board also approved two Highway Department resolutions and heard an update on winter road conditions. The actions included a funding transfer and acceptance of annual motor fuel tax bid prices.County Engineer George Shepard said the department is requesting that motor fuel tax funds be used to help maintain county unit roads. He said asphalt roads cost less to maintain than gravel and chip-and-seal roads.Shepard also said motor fuel tax bids came in better than expected this year. He told commissioners that price increases were limited.\u201cWe got really good bids this year,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cEverything remained the same or increased less than 10%.\u201dShepard warned that the county is running low on road salt following recent snowstorms. He said crews used about 1,100 tons during the most recent winter weather event.\u00a92026 The Southern Illinoisan, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williamson County, Ill., Approves Cybersecurity Pact https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/security\/williamson-county-ill-approves-cybersecurity-pact Publish Date: 2026-02-11 17:19:00 Source Domain: www.govtech.com Author:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/erepublic.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/4d25e89\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/940x457+0+85\/resize\/1440x700!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ferepublic-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fc7%2Fe6%2F15cc0c2a576e7e7b79495dba3677%2Fshutterstock-281522084.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-186512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186514,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186512\/revisions\/186514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}