The completion of the project financed by the “Cyber Secure Local Government” grant is a moment of great satisfaction. It was possible to obtain significant funds, implement modern technologies and improve the competence of the team. From the perspective of many, this is a happy ending and achievement of the goal. But in reality, it is only the end of the first and most important stage of a much longer journey. Cyber security is not a project that has an end date. It is an ongoing process that requires constant attention, adaptation and investment.
Grant is like a powerful rocket engine that lifts a satellite into orbit. It provides enormous energy to overcome gravity and reach its intended altitude. But when that engine runs out of fuel, the satellite has to run its own onboard systems to stay on course and not fall back to Earth. It’s exactly the same with your local government’s safety program. The grant gives an unprecedented boost at the start, but the real challenge is to ensure sustainability and maintain the level achieved in the years to come, already using your own resources.
Thinking about “what comes after the grant” must start today, at the investment planning stage. Technology selection, process building and budget planning - all must be undertaken with a long-term perspective. This is the only way to avoid the “project trap” and turn a one-time grant into a lasting foundation of digital resilience for the municipality, the county and their residents.
Shortcuts
- You’ve won a grant and implemented a project. Why is the real work just beginning?
- What is the “project trap,” or why a one-time investment without a plan for the future is wasted money?
- From project to program: How to change the thinking about cybersecurity in your office.
- Pillar 1 - Budget: How to plan in the multi-year financial forecast the costs of maintaining the new systems?
- What is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and why do you need to know it before you choose a technology?
- Three pillars of sustainability of the “Cyber Secure Local Government” project.
- Pillar 2 - Processes: How do you weave cyber security into the day-to-day operations of the office?
- Why does every new purchase and every change in IT now have to go through a “security filter”?
- Pillar 3 - People: How do we ensure continuity of knowledge and competencies within the IT team?
- How do you create an ongoing development and training plan that will last beyond the grant period?
- How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) in cybersecurity over the long term?
- Why consider the Managed Services model as a way to ensure sustainability?
- How to build a roadmap for cybersecurity development for the next 5 years after the grant ends?
- How can nFlo become your long-term partner in cybersecurity maintenance and development?
You’ve won a grant and implemented a project. Why is the real work just beginning?
Completing a grant project means that you now have a set of powerful new tools and trained people in your office. However, these tools will not work on their own. They require constant care, configuration, updating and, most importantly, wise interpretation of the data they generate. The real work lies in weaving these new capabilities into the day-to-day operation of the office.
A SIEM system, implemented thanks to a grant, is useless if no one regularly analyzes its alerts. A modern backup system won’t protect against anything if no one verifies that backups are taking place correctly. Knowledge gained in training courses will evaporate if it is not regularly refreshed and put into practice.
The post-grant period is when an organization must prove that it can independently maintain and develop the capabilities it has built. This is the transition from the intensive construction phase to the mature, day-to-day operation phase.
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What is the “project trap,” or why a one-time investment without a plan for the future is wasted money?
“The project trap” is a phenomenon in which an organization focuses all its energy on completing and accounting for a one-time project, forgetting to plan for its long-term maintenance. After two years, funding runs out, the project team is disbanded, and the implemented systems slowly begin to die.
Prepaid subscriptions for upgrades and technical support expire after three years. No one has budgeted for the following year to renew them. After four years, the hardware begins to age, and trained employees leave, taking their unique knowledge with them. After five years, an expensive security system, implemented with great pomp, becomes an obsolete, unmanaged and consequently useless “monument,” and the real level of security returns to its starting point.
This is unfortunately a very common scenario for externally funded projects. To avoid it, sustainability planning must be an integral part of the project from the very beginning, not an issue that is thought about five minutes before the project ends.
From project to program: How to change the thinking about cyber security in your office.
The key to ensuring sustainability is a fundamental shift in thinking: we need to move from viewing cyber security as a one-time project to seeing it as an ongoing, strategic program.
A project has a clearly defined beginning and end, it has a defined budget and team, and its goal is to deliver a specific product (e.g., “implement system X”). The program has no end date. It is an ongoing, cyclical management and improvement process that becomes an integral part of the organization’s normal operation. It has a fixed, assigned budget and a permanent owner.
The “Cyber-Secure Local Government” grant is a de facto project to launch and fund the first two years of operation of a cyber-security program at your local government. Your task as a leader is to use this time to build this program into the structures, budget and culture of the office so that after 24 months it will be able to function independently.
Pillar 1 - Budget: How to plan in the multi-year financial forecast the cost of maintaining the new systems?
The most important part of sustainability planning is to ensure future funding. Even at the stage of selecting the technology in the grant, you need to think about what will happen after the grant ends. It is crucial that, in conjunction with the treasurer and finance department, you include future costs in your local government’s Long-Term Financial Forecast (MTF).
A precise estimate must be made of the annual costs of renewing software licenses, service subscriptions (e.g., SOC as a Service), or support contracts for deployed systems. These items must be included in budget plans for the following years, as a fixed, planned operating expense, on a par with the cost of maintaining the office’s other key systems.
The conversation on this topic should start with financial decision makers today, not two years from now. It should be made clear to them: “The grant allows us to buy a car, but from the third year onward we need to budget fixed funds for its fuel, insurance and maintenance. Without this, the car will be useless.”
What is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and why do you need to know it before you choose a technology?
When making grant purchasing decisions, don’t just look at the purchase and implementation price. Always analyze the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in a perspective of at least 5 years. TCO includes not only the initial cost, but also all future costs associated with maintaining and operating the solution.
Solution A, which has a lower purchase price, may have very expensive annual license renewals. Solution B, while more expensive to start, may offer cheaper maintenance in subsequent years. TCO analysis allows you to make a much wiser, more strategic decision.
Always ask potential suppliers to provide not only an implementation offer, but also a precise estimate of renewal and support costs in years 3, 4 and 5. This knowledge will allow you to realistically plan future budgets and avoid unpleasant surprises when grant funding runs out.
Three pillars of sustainability of the “Cyber Secure Local Government” project.
PillarKey ActionTarget**1. budget (Finance)**TCO analysis for purchase and inclusion of maintenance costs in the Multi-Year Financial Forecast.Ensure continuity of program funding after the grant ends.**2 Processes (Organization)**Weave security principles into the office’s daily procedures (e.g., purchasing, HR, change management).Making cyber security an integral part of culture and operations, rather than a separate “project.”**3. people (Competencies)**Create a plan for continuous development, training and knowledge management within the team.Ensuring that knowledge and skills remain in the organization permanently.
Pillar 2 - Processes: How do you weave cyber security into the day-to-day operations of the office?
For a security program to be sustainable, it cannot function in isolation. It must become an integral part of the office’s organizational fabric. This means weaving security policies and procedures into existing, day-to-day operational processes.
For example, the purchasing process must be modified so that any new IT software or hardware purchase must go through a security risk assessment. The hiring process for new employees (HR) must include mandatory initial cyber security training.
The IT change management process must require that any significant change in the configuration of a network or systems must first be evaluated for its impact on security. Only through such integration can we ensure that the level of security achieved by a grant will not slowly degrade as a result of day-to-day, uncontrolled activities.
Why does every new purchase and every change in IT now have to go through a “security filter”?
One of the most important processes to implement is a formal risk assessment procedure for new initiatives. The grant will allow you to build a secure architecture. But that architecture will be constantly challenged by new projects, systems and user needs.
Every new system to be implemented, every new cloud service that the authority wants to subscribe to, must pass a “security filter.” The security team must have the right and responsibility to assess what new risks a project introduces and what additional safeguards are necessary to minimize those risks.
Implementing such a procedure prevents “Shadow IT” and ensures that new initiatives do not create holes in the defense system built with so much effort. This is a key element in maintaining the consistency and integrity of the entire security architecture in the long term.
Pillar 3 - People: How do we ensure continuity of knowledge and competencies within the IT team?
The grant allows you to fund advanced training and upgrade the competence of your IT team. But what happens if a key, newly trained IT professional leaves in a year’s time, and with him or her all the unique knowledge of new systems?
Sustainability management must include a knowledge and competence management plan. First, care must be taken to ensure detailed documentation of implemented solutions so that knowledge is not “in the head” of one person, but is available to the entire team.
Second, plan training strategically. Instead of sending only one person to a key training session, it is advisable to send at least two to ensure redundancy. You should also implement a culture of internal knowledge sharing - hold internal workshops where employees train each other.
How do you create an ongoing development and training plan that will last beyond the grant period?
A grant-funded awareness-building program cannot be a one-time event. It must become a permanent fixture in the life of the office. Plans should be made today for how this program will continue in future years.
There should be defined in the budget a fixed line, however small, for “awareness” activities. An annual training and communication schedule should be created and implemented periodically. It could include, for example, annual mandatory refresher e-learning, quarterly phishing simulations and a monthly tips newsletter.
It is also worth tapping internal resources. Establishing and supporting a group of “safety ambassadors” who promote good practices within their departments is an extremely effective and low-cost way to maintain program continuity.
How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) in cybersecurity over the long term?
Once the grant is over, you will have to justify the expense of maintaining the security program in your budget each year. To do this effectively, you must be able to show a return on that investment. Measuring ROI in security is difficult, but possible.
In addition to tracking technical indicators (e.g., number of attacks blocked, decrease in click-through rate in phishing simulations), it is worth focusing on business indicators. You can measure the reduction in incident-related costs - comparing the cost of handling incidents before and after implementing the program.
You can also argue based on loss avoidance (cost avoidance). Regular risk analysis allows you to estimate the potential losses associated with a possible attack. An investment in security that reduces this risk yields a tangible, financial return in the form of “saved” money we would have had to spend to handle the crisis.
Why consider the Managed Services model as a way to ensure sustainability?
One of the biggest challenges for TSU is maintaining highly specialized internal competencies. In this context, consider basing part of your security program on a Managed Services model.
Instead of building and maintaining an in-house team for 24/7 monitoring (SOC), it can be much more cost-effective and reliable to purchase SOC as a Service. Instead of worrying about maintaining firewall management experts, you can outsource this task to an external partner under an SLA.
Such a model transforms unpredictable expenses and staffing risks into a fixed, predictable subscription fee that is easier to budget for. The grant can be used to fund the first two years of such a service, giving time to build its cost into the authority’s permanent financial plans.
How to build a roadmap for cybersecurity development for the next 5 years after the grant ends?
A grant is a powerful start, but the journey doesn’t end there. A mature organization should have a multi-year roadmap for developing its cyber security program. This document, based on audit findings and regular risk analysis, should define strategic goals and initiatives for the coming years.
A roadmap for the “post-grant” period might include, for example:
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In Year 1: Maintain implemented systems and focus on process improvement.
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In Year 2: Expand monitoring to more areas of infrastructure.
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In Year 3: Conduct advanced penetration testing.
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In Year 4: Implement more advanced security modules.
Having this long-term vision allows you to drive your program in a strategic and evolutionary way, rather than in a chaotic and reactive way. It is also a powerful tool for communicating with your board, showing that you have a thoughtful, multi-year plan for ensuring the digital resilience of your local government.
How can nFlo become your long-term partner in cybersecurity maintenance and development?
At nFlo, we believe in building long-term partnerships. Our goal is not to sell and implement a project one time, but to accompany our clients on their multi-year journey to digital maturity. That’s why our offering is designed to support you also during the maintenance and development phase of your program, long after the grant funding has ended. We offer flexible support agreements (SLAs) and Managed Services packages that take the burden of day-to-day security systems administration off your team. Our SOC as a Service provides continuous monitoring at the highest level, without the need to build your own team. We also act as a virtual CISO (vCISO), providing ongoing strategic advice to help analyze risks and plan for your program’s growth. With nFlo, the “Cyber Secure Local Government” grant becomes not just a one-time project, but the beginning of a sustainable, secure future for your office.
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