State homeland-security grants include funding awards for cybersecurity

ALBANY, N.Y. — The Town of Geddes, Oswego County, Herkimer County, Cortland County, and Seneca County are among the local governments awarded state grant funding for cybersecurity projects.

The program provides funding support for eligible counties, cities, towns, and villages to “enhance” their ability to protect, detect, identify, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a June 29 news release. 

Recipients can use the funding to “mitigate capability gaps” that have been identified through a risk-assessment methodology. 

The Town of Geddes, along with Cortland and Oswego counties were awarded $50,000 each. Herkimer County will receive nearly $48,000 and Seneca County was awarded $12,000, per Cuomo’s office.

The grants are part of more than $1.4 million awarded statewide for cybersecurity projects. The cybersecurity grants were among a total of $7.4 million in state funding in homeland-security grants to support New York’s emergency preparations, Cuomo’s office said. 

The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services manages the targeted grant programs, having previously distributed nearly $82 million through the state homeland-security program.

Altogether, Cuomo’s office announced 76 recipients. The funding supports vital training and equipment for first responders, including specialized law enforcement and fire-emergency response teams. The $7.4 million in funding supports New York’s bomb squads, hazardous-materials teams, explosive-detection canine teams, and technical rescue and urban search and rescue teams. Funds will also help protect and secure critical infrastructure and enhance local governments’ cybersecurity capabilities. 

Besides the cybersecurity money, the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, and the Village of Endicott were each awarded $100,000 in bomb-squad funding. This program helps equip and train the state’s 12 local FBI-accredited bomb squads to locate and prevent potential emergencies caused by improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

“Public safety is our top priority in New York and this funding allows cities, towns, villages and counties to enhance their emergency preparedness capabilities so they can protect New Yorkers from a variety of threats,” Cuomo said. “First responders need high quality resources to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and this funding will ensure they can acquire them. We owe infinite thanks to these teams and anticipate these grants streamlining the work they do to serve our communities.”

The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services provides “leadership, coordination and support” for efforts to prevent, protect against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorism and other man-made and natural disasters, threats, fires and other emergencies.