Five Ways to Protect Your Citizen Services

Local governments face increasing pressure to provide efficient online services while protecting sensitive citizen data and preventing system outages. Breaches and outages put citizen and agency data at risk and come at a hefty cost to municipalities — IT security company Knowbe4  estimates the cost of a breach for local municipalities in the U.S. to be between $665,000 to $40.5 million.   

As municipalities transition to electronic plan review for permit processing, security must remain the cornerstone of these digital transformation journeys. Here are five essential ways to safeguard your citizen services while maintaining the operational efficiency your community expects and deserves.  

1. Prioritize Security Updates and Continuous Assessment

Security isn’t a one-time effort; it requires ongoing vigilance. Stagnation is a real risk to IT departments, and rather than assuming what worked previously will work again, IT leaders and security teams must continually reassess the security protocols of your tech stack. Are these able to adequately protect you?  

To best support secure and reliable citizen services, implement a regular cadence of security assessments and audits for all citizen-facing and internal applications. This includes vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and keeping all software up to date with the latest security patches. Staying current with the latest release from your vendors ensures you get the most current security measures pushed automatically to the platform, protecting the agency and your community at large. It’s essential to remember that yesterday’s security measures may not address today’s threats. 

While it might seem more secure to keep everything in-house, having a server onsite often creates more vulnerabilities than it solves. Purpose-built SaaS solutions from specialized providers typically offer more robust security than generic alternatives. With SaaS, as new features roll out and regulations evolve, vendors automatically update their solutions without needing local IT support, which ensures that agencies always have the most current features and security protections. What’s more, SaaS platforms are typically hosted on one of a few cloud providers, like Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google, all of which confer incredible built-in security that can’t be replicated. 

When selecting an electronic plan review, choose vendors who focus exclusively on best-in-breed government solutions. While all-in-one, suite software solutions can be tempting, specialized providers offer the most attuned and tailored solutions, rather than tacking-on features and functionality and calling themselves a holistic solution. Additionally, look for vendors with a proven specialism in government technology. Their expertise in the specific security requirements of municipal operations provides an invaluable layer of protection that general-purpose tools just can’t match. 

3. Verify Proper Security Certifications 

Don’t just take a vendor’s word that they’re secure — look for independent verification! Credentials like SOC 2 and ISO are labor-intensive and demanding to secure, meaning that getting certified clearly indicates to municipalities that a company is up to date on the most recent security best practices. 

Key certifications to look for include: 

• SOC 2 Type II: Confirms the service provider follows strict information security policies and procedures. 

• ISO 27001: Demonstrates a comprehensive information security management system. 

• Regular third-party security audits and penetration testing to ensure objectivity and comprehensive evaluation.  

The most trustworthy vendors will prominently display and publicize these credentials to ensure their customers know their data is safe and secure.  

4. Develop Rapid Response Capabilities 

Even with the best preventative measures, security incidents can still occur — what matters most is how quickly and effectively you respond. Security teams should establish clear procedures for identifying, containing, and remediating potential security issues. 

Make sure your response plan includes: 

• Designated response teams with clearly defined roles. 

• Documentation of response procedures. 

• Regular training and simulated security exercises. 

• Communication protocols for notifying affected parties. 

To further support your own agency’s response capabilities, when selecting vendors, inquire about their incident response protocol and how they would handle a potential data breach affecting your municipal’s information. 

5. Create a Comprehensive Business Continuity Plan 

As all civil servants know, service disruptions affect more than just internal operations — they put sensitive citizen data at risk and can directly impact community members and citizens who depend on your services. For plan review, delays can create bottlenecks and have significant economic consequences for your community and those investing in it. 

Develop a robust business continuity strategy that addresses: 

• Data backup and recovery procedures. 

• Regular testing of recovery capabilities. 

• Clear communication channels to keep stakeholders informed during disruptions. 

By implementing these five protective measures, your city or county can provide the digital services citizens expect while maintaining the security and reliability your community deserves. In government technology, protection and progress aren’t competing priorities but rather essential partners in delivering valuable citizen services.