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National Guard coming to test county’s network for safety

COLUMBUS—Polk County will be having the National Guard Cyber Assessment Team come in to test the county’s systems for safety. 

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Monday and heard from IT Director Bruce Yelton. Yelton said he received an email last month from the North Carolina School of Government offering the service. 

He said the service would typically cost a county $50,000 to test all systems. 

Yelton said the National Guard Cyber Assessment Team will come in and test all networks to make sure the county is following best practices. 

“It’s a good opportunity for us to see where we are as a county,” Yelton said. “There’s no reason to believe there’s any vulnerabilities on our network.” 

Yelton said one of the reasons the service is being offered is that election security is a big topic in the nation right now. 

The state is paying for the service. 

The county will apply for the service, with Yelton saying he will update the board of commissioners following the assessment to let the board know any findings from the team.