City's IT budget gets 6% budget bump to fight cyberattacks

The City of Ottawa's IT subcommittee has flouted the mayor's mandated two per cent cap on departmental budget increases by approving a $4-million increase to fend off cybersecurity threats.

A large portion of the $4 million, which represents a six per cent increase to the city's 2018 IT budget, will be spent on measures to beef up the city's cybersecurity systems, according to chief information officer Saad Bashir.

Our estimates are going to be accurate. If we say we're going to do a certain amount of work, we're going to show the real cost of the that.- Coun. Rick Chiarelli

"The threats could be coming from anywhere in the worldall it takes is a laptop and an internet connection." Bashir said.

In the last three months, the city has fended of 1,600 attempts to compromise city computers, Bashirtold the subcommittee. He said hackers are typically looking for personal information, including credit card numbers.

He said he's not aware of any successful attempts to breach the city's online security barrier.

He said it's difficult to know where threats are coming from, so that's why the city needs to be prepared.

'We have to do it'

The budget increase is a departure for this term of council, which has typically restricted departmental budgets to a two per cent increase.

Committee chair Rick Chiarelli defended the six per cent increase for the IT department, saying the city is facing real security threats.

"We have to do it. It's the public's information. It's the public's security," Chiarelli said.

Chiarelli was critical of the 2018 draft city budget earlier this month, calling it a "fake budget" that doesn't reflect what the city actually plans to spend, thereby makingthe tax increase appear lower than it actually is. He said that's not the case with the IT budget.

Dancing banana

"Our estimates are going to be accurate. If we say we're going to do a certain amount of work, we're going to show the real cost of the that," he said.

The last time the city had a major online security incident was in 2014, when a hacker temporarily replaced the city and police service websites with a new page that featured a gif of a dancing banana.

In that case, Bashir said it was not a security breach per se, butsimply a hacker putting a "facade" in front of the city's front web page.

The 2018 budget will be finalized at city council on Dec. 13.