By Caroline Seymour – In January, a ransomware attack on the city of Del Rio, Texas, shut down City Hall servers and forced officials to resort to pen and paper to provide services. The city of Sammamish, Wash., also had to declare a city emergency after ransomware took hold of its systems, affecting storage drives and internal shared files.

As recent patterns suggest, cybercriminals are not just targeting large cities such as Atlanta now. Small towns are also under attack, and they are especially vulnerable to ransomware, as they typically lack funds and security expertise that may be present in larger locales.

A recent survey from e.Republic on government market insights revealed that city IT leaders rank cybersecurity as their No. 1 priority. But while many local governments are prioritizing cybersecurity, ransomware threats continue to evolve at a faster rate.

With this in mind, smaller local governments should take steps and accelerate their plans to protect against ransomware, among other cyberattacks. Preplanning is needed so that, when trouble strikes, there are immediate steps taken to ensure services aren’t disrupted and critical activities that residents rely on can continue as needed. Read more: