Mi-GMIS - 2021 Awards

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2021 Awards

Celebrating the people and projects transforming Michigan's public sector

IT Professional of the Year

Eean Lee awarded IT Professional of the Year awardEean Lee, CIO, Tuscola County Awarded IT Professional of the Year

Eean Lee has been the CIO of Tuscola County for almost 7 years. In his time he has proven his commitment to enhancing the access of citizens to the services and information of the County. He is currently working on a major infrastructure project and has been influential in many other key projects over the years. Eean has obtained his CGCIO as well as maintaining other certifications in the industry to ensure his leadership stays top notch. Eean also serves on the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority (MMRMA) Technology and Cyber Security Risk Control Advisory Committee. MMRMA is a public entity self-insurance pool that provides liability and property coverage to municipal governmental entities across Michigan. This risk advisory committee was created as a way to assist members in reducing their potential exposure to losses. Member participants work closely with risk control consultants and claims adjusters to help develop training courses, policy and procedure documents, and other signature elements of MMRMA's risk management program. He has also been very involved in the State led Cyber Partners group. Michigan Cyber Partners is a collaboration between various divisions at the State of Michigan, including Michigan Cyber Security and the Michigan State Police, and local public entities across Michigan to strengthen, improve, and promote cybersecurity resources and best practices. He shares his knowledge of cybersecurity with all who ask and is always ready to lend a helping hand to those who may be in need.

IT Security Project of the Year

Genesee County Awarded IT Security Project of the Year Award

Local government is a preferred target of cyber criminals due to the sensitive information they possess on citizens. Attacks on local government continue to rise at an alarming rate. In the GCIT Strategic Plan, IT Security is number one of the six key tenets for moving forward. The protection of County assets and data will always be a primary focus. This is a shared responsibility for all County IT system users. A majority of cyber security related incidents are caused unintentionally by employees falling victim to phishing attacks. Educating employees to become aware of these methods is the best way to mitigate the malicious attempts to compromise government systems and data. With approval from the Genesee County Board of Commissioners, annual IT Security Awareness Training is now mandated for all County IT system users. This will ensure that they have the basic knowledge to utilize the systems safely and help identify suspicious activity. We live in a connected world. Cell phones, tablets, computers, and smart devices connect people to information but also provide connection to cyber criminals. Understanding that this affects our citizens, Genesee County Information Technology partnered with Wizer to become the first County in the Country to deliver commercially developed IT security awareness training to our citizens for free. We are still featured on the Wizer website. Our team has invested heavily in security technologies and developed processes to help ensure the protection of Genesee County data and assets that all combine to form a layered security approach. This approach places an emphasis on visibility with automated notification and response. Highlights in this area include: The selection and implementation of a malware detection and detonation tool that protected this County from multiple potential attacks. This tool has provided the alerting and visibility to allow our team to identify and mitigate an attack in under 15 minutes. The replacement of outdated firewalls with leading edge technology A significant upgrade in our Anti-Virus software with automated updates, off site reporting, and isolated scanning to mitigate inherent security risks The installation of a new backup and recovery system with multiple levels of data protection including a fail-over location Scheduled system patching to ensure all software remains on secure and supportable levels Implementation of Multi-factor Authentication for all remote, administrative and compliance related accounts Implementation of encryption for all end user computers Increased website security including web application firewalls Implemented File Integrity Monitoring for data leakage and threat hunting Provide Network Access Policy Monitoring capabilities to serve as a compliance tool along with increasing internal network security These modifications have greatly improved the Counties security posture while remaining in budget compliance.

IT Project of the Year

Oakland County Awarded IT Project of the Year

The COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, has challenged the ability to maintain meaningful social connections and the impact on the health and well-being of all people. Older adults remain at higher risk for social isolation and loneliness due to the heightened risks of the COVID-19 virus in relation to age. Individuals in senior living facilities amidst the current pandemic are more likely to experience loneliness. Since the beginning of the pandemic guidelines at senior living facilities have evolved and in many cases group activities, group dining, and outside visitors have been put on hold leaving residents with little social contact amongst their peers and the outside world. Oakland County is home to 136,000 adults over 65 with many living in senior living facilities. With such a high senior population Oakland County began to explore how technology may bridge the gap in this time of social distancing. Committed to decreasing loneliness for its senior residents, Oakland County teamed with Amazon and American House Senior Living Facilities to deploy Amazon Echo Show devices to American House residents within the county. Video calling capabilities were offered so senior residents may have an alternative to in person visits with their loved ones. The Oakland Together Lifeline project, chartered by the Board of Commissioners and led by Oakland County IT (OCIT) was comprised of appointed members from Oakland County Health Division, Amazon, American House Senior Living Facilities, and The Area Agency on Aging (AAA1B). Oakland County IT Coordinated an effort to fund, procure, and deploy Amazon Echo Show devices at the American House communities. Echo Show Devices enable senior residents to communicate with loved ones through phone and video calls. Oakland County's legal department worked to create contracts enabling the transfer of CARES Act COVID-19 relief funds from the county to American House for the purchase of 100 devices as part of the pilot program. OCIT created training materials for set up and use for Echo Show users and their family members along with information packets on cyber security awareness, FAQs, and Echo Show commands specific to the use case of a senior user. OCIT developed the use cases and completed user testing prior to rollout. OCIT and the Area Agency on Aging (AAA1B) created questionnaires to survey senior users before, during, and after using the device to determine its impacts on feelings of social isolation and loneliness. Objectives Decrease loneliness within senior living facilities in Oakland County Increase technology inclination among senior residents through training Publish and share results The combined cost to the county for the Oakland Together Lifeline project included only labor hours for coordination and the creation of training materials for a total of $11,500.