June 27, 2023
Information Technology
DATE: June 27, 2023
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Sue Hartman, Director of Information Technology
Subject:
First Amendment to the Agreement with Maze &
Associates for Added Services for Cybersecurity Defense FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed first year funding in the amount of $67,050 is allocated from the Information Technology operating
budget (account: 01261017-400702) with a total two-year amount not to exceed $134,100. The latter year will be
covered by account 01261017-400209.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
September 22, 2020
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
Darktrace’s cybersecurity defense application and
appliance provides critical support to protect the City’s technological infrastructure. City staff requests City
Council approval of a first amendment to the agreement
with Maze & Associates, extending the term by two
years, and increasing the contract by $134,100 to acquire and implement the Darktrace cybersecurity defense
system.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a first amendment to the agreement with
Maze & Associates to procure, implement, maintain, and
support the Darktrace cybersecurity defense system,
increasing the compensation by $134,100, for a total
contract amount not to exceed $283,100, and extending
the term to June 30, 2025 – Information Technology
Department (Sue Hartman 510-620-6874).
AGENDA
REPORT
June 27, 2023
DISCUSSION:
Maze & Associates administers the cybersecurity defense system utilizing a product called Darktrace. Darktrace provides an email, cloud, and hardware-based network defense system. The City has utilized its services since 2020. Amending the current contract will enhance the City’s cyber-threat monitoring with active autonomous responses, which can intercept and neutralize cyber-attacks including insider threats, ransomware, and Internet of Things (IoT) attacks without the need for human intervention. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning is necessary to keep pace with today’s advanced persistent threats. The additional suite of services will provide the City with additional cybersecurity.
Darktrace has been instrumental in identifying cybersecurity. It leverages the latest advances in AI to augment human teams, ease workloads, and mitigate the impact of attacks by slashing time to detection and response. Darktrace automates cyber defense with a unique ‘self-learning’ approach and design principle. More critically than ever, Darktrace’s self-learning approach means that the system can dynamically adapt to changing processes and infrastructure, keeping systems safe. Darktrace will help the City of Richmond secure systems saving critical staff resources that can be utilized toward more strategic efforts and business transformation.
The software flags suspicious and malicious traffic for review and continuously learns about our network traffic to help accurately know when to flag connections and traffic.
Darktrace’s self-learning technology works by analyzing raw network traffic and using machine learning and AI algorithms to form an evolving understanding of ‘normal’ for every user, device, and network in an organization. Based on this ‘pattern of life’, the Enterprise Immune System can identify ‘abnormal’ activity and detect emerging threats in real time. As we have explained in the past, through many years of auditing the City’s security system and the City’s network, Maze & Associates is most qualified in implementing the Darktrace system. Maze & Associates is unique for their local government experience. City staff is recommending an amendment to the contract with Maze & Associates to ensure that it has the most up-to-date suite of cybersecurity protection tools necessary to defend the City of Richmond’s network against cybersecurity threats.
City staff are recommending approval of an amended contract with Maze & Associates which extends the term to June 30, 2025, to provide additional cybersecurity defense for the City of Richmond. The cost for the continuation of the service is an additional $134,100 which increases the total compensation under this agreement to an amount not to exceed $283,100.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Original Contract
Attachment 2 – Maze & Associates Darktrace Contract Amendment no 1