Livermore's Cyber Safe initiative is dedicated to fostering a secure and inclusive cyber environment within the community. As part of this effort, the initiative provides valuable resources for promoting cyber safety, and actively participates in national events like Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Data Privacy Week, with the City Council issuing formal proclamations and social media messaging. The initiative also offers a range of Cyber Safety resources on its website, which are accessible to the general public at https://cybersafe.livermoreca.gov.  Additionally, the City provides a complimentary Right Hand Cybersecurity application to residents to help encourage the adoption of best cyber hygiene practices. 

“This initiative is an important part of the City of Livermore’s mission to create a safe, healthy welcoming city and provide safe, accessible public amenities.  This is an engaging, innovative way to educate our community on the importance of cyber safety and arm them with resources and tools to be cyber safe in their everyday lives.” - Mayor John Marchand

Cyber threats and the damage caused by them continue increase an in order for us to push back we need everyone to work together against those cyber threats. Every day in the news we hear new stories of cyber-attacks and there seems to be no end in sight. There is a growing understanding there needs to be public private collaboration at all levels if we want to stem the tide.

"The United States faces persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns that threaten the public sector, the private sector, and ultimately the American people’s security and privacy." - President, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Cyber-crime, if measured, would be the 3rd largest economy in the world with over $6 trillion in global damages. The impact of cyber breaches is disproportional to individuals and small businesses.  Small to medium sized businesses and individuals do not have access to the same resources necessary to protect themselves from cyber criminals, cyber bullies, nation states, or any other cyber bad guys.  Many small businesses that become victims of cyber-attacks file for bankruptcy or go out of business.

Impact on Small Businesses

• 30% of small businesses experienced an official breach
• 25% of them filed for bankruptcy
• 10% of them went out of business

Cyber Safe Inclusion

The recent congressional Report form the Cyberspace Solarium Commission noted that cybersecurity is critical to improving digital citizenship.  In working to bridge the digital divide cybersecurity is essential, in fact the Global Cyber Alliance promotes the idea that cybersecurity needs to be a basic human right.  Simply providing individuals with highspeed internet without any training or awareness on how to protect themselves online, does not improve digital citizenship or enable them to participate at the same level in a modern economy.  All technology comes with risk and as we become more dependent on technology for work, school, and commerce the impact of those risks increases.  

Underserved communities and small businesses are hit especially hard because they do not have access to cybersecurity resources and expertise.  We cannot bridge the digital divide while ignoring the significant cyber risks.  It will take a collaboration of public and private sector organizations to meet these risks and this is an opportunity for the City to take a leading role in helping to make Livermore cyber safe.

Key Points

• Digital inclusion (and equality) is increasingly becoming one of the major social justice challenges of our time. 
• Digital inclusion is vital to employment participation, economic development, educational achievement, social and civic inclusion, health and wellbeing.
• There is a need for enhanced support for civics education in the digital age.
• Public libraries aim to bridge the digital divide by providing all residents, regardless of economic status, access to online data and educational opportunities. 
• Cybersecurity helps to ensure an empowering and inclusive future.

Initiative Goals

“This is an important part of the core mission of the City government which is to keep citizens safe.” - Former Mayor Bob Woerner

The world is becoming more dependent on technology and securing that technology has not kept pace with those advancements.  The recent COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated Internet service and cloud services are critical for our local economy but also the livelihood of Livermore residents.  The City has taken the opportunity to take a leadership role by bringing cyber safety awareness for our residents. Livermore aims to be the example other Cities can look too for bringing cyber safety to the public. 

Cyber Safety aligns with our values of teamwork, commitment to quality, continuous improvement and strong customer service for Livermore residents. The goals for our cyber safety efforts is to decrease cybercrime, increase the public cyber safety and resilience and finally promote economic development and innovation and empower residents to participate in an inclusive future.

Goals

• Increase public cyber safety
• Cyber-crime prevention
• Promote economic development and innovation
• Community resilience
• Empower an inclusive future

Cybersecurity Awareness Month & Beyond

The City will start our cyber safety efforts with the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Cybersecurity Awareness Month was started by the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Department of Homeland Security in 2004.  Since then the program has continued to grow with more an more organization collaborate together to get word out. Cybersecurity Awareness Month Champion organizations, which include companies of all sizes, schools and school districts, colleges and universities, nonprofits and government entities, represent those dedicated to promoting a safer, more secure and more trusted Internet.

The City of Livermore is a recognized campion this year along with 36 other Cities across the nation. Cybercrime doesn’t stop on November 1 and our efforts cannot stop either.  The City will continue year round to provided Livermore residents and businesses with the necessary cyber safety and cybersecurity resources.

Understanding the necessity of cybersecurity, the Cybersecurity Division is collaborating with Livermore Public Library, the Livermore Police Department, and the Office of Innovation and Economic Development to continue to provide individuals, businesses and other local organization cybersecurity resources going forward.  The cyber treats will continue to be around on November 1st and we will continue to provide those resources year-round.

As we have noted Cybersecurity requires a whole community effort that ensures that all Livermore residents have the skills and opportunity to benefit from digital citizenship and that business can protect themselves from cyber-attacks.  Soon we will reach out to other community stakeholders to expand cyber safety awareness. Together we can increase our community cyber resiliency. This is a whole community effort to ensures that all Livermore residents have the skills and opportunity to benefit from digital citizenship.

During cybersecurity awareness month you will see social media posts from the Cities main social media accounts, the police and library accounts as well, thought the month of October with cyber safety tips.  We will continue post we less frequency throughout the year.

We have established a resource center on the City website that will have resources for residents, informational articles and even a cyber safety activity book for children.  We currently have 114 resources and plan to continue to grow the resources as they become available.