The U.S. Department of Homeland Security guidelines state that the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) is a multi-year opportunity to significantly improve the cybersecurity posture of West Virginia counties and municipalities. West Virginia is obligated to spend over 80% of the funds on cybersecurity grant requests made by local governments within West Virginia. The grant funds can be used by localities to purchase services, software, and hardware designed to improve the cybersecurity posture of a West Virginia locality.

Localities will use the first year of the grant to take the steps necessary to receive larger amounts in subsequent years.  Year One has been designed for 1) cybersecurity assessments that can 2) prioritize and justify specific cybersecurity improvements in subsequent years. Forge Security is helping localities complete their Year One projects and prepare grant requests to receive funding for subsequent remediation activities. The SLCGP is managed by the WV Office of Technology.  This is a major opportunity for County and Municipal governments to overhaul their IT system, at only ten percent (10%) of the actual cost of making the changes through their own budgets. 

Forge Security will assess county and municipality networks and compare the hygiene of that network to CISA’s cybersecurity standard.  Forge will then deliver recommendations on which remedial actions will have the most measurable impact on network security.  Forge will also assist with prioritizing and budgeting for the plan of remediation for future grant funding. Years Two through Four of the SLCGP have been designed to fund the local governments’ implementation of the remedial actions to bring the locality into compliance with CISA’s standards and the West Virginia cybersecurity plan. Forge Security has shared feedback with the West Virginia Office of Technology on the cybersecurity plan.  Forge has built that feedback into the Tempered Compliance software platform so that the assessment outputs provide not only a compliance assessment but a remedial plan designed to roll over into the next grant years for specific funding requests.  Each county will be able to prioritize requests for future grant money to purchase the necessary equipment and services to close those gaps and demonstrate compliance with the NIST CSF.

Forge Security will be your partner in working with this one-of-a-kind opportunity grant program.  This grant-funded will help counties and municipalities improve their cybersecurity posture in the present and in future years. Each county will be able to make tailored decisions based on their current cybersecurity posture and make informed requests in future year grant applications. Please contact Forge as soon as possible so that your county and localities can take the earliest advantage of the money available for Year One assessments and remediation prioritization activities. Do not miss out on future funding by delaying. Contact Forge today by contacting Justin Jarrell and the Forge team at info@forgecybersec.com.