Los Angeles: Warm Weather, Movie Stars — and 100 Million Monthly Cyber Attacks

Los Angeles, a target for movie stars and warm weather, is also one of the largest for cyber-attacks in the world. Being the second largest city in the nation, L.A.’s massive data responsibilities create an enormity of security challenges. “We receive a massive amount of automated cyber-attacks every month, about 100 million,” said Ted Ross, the city’s CIO. To combat this issue, Ross reports that the city has made significant improvements to its cybersecurity in the last two years, such as the construction of a $1.8 million Integrated Security Operations Center which consolidates threat intelligence. Consolidation has helped to speed up threat response and coordination. L.A. is sharing their findings with the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Secret Service in efforts of unifying with other governments and cyber professionals. The issue of ransomware remains at the top of the list of L.A.’s worries, but they do feel confident in their security behind their internet of things infrastructure.