ADAMS TWP — Alicia Slade, IT consultant for Plummer Slade, presented a three-phase plan to improve the borough’s network administration and security.

At the borough’s meeting Monday, Feb. 20, she presented an overview of issues her company found during a computer network assessment and a security assessment.

“There’s some things I really want you to take home from this meeting, and No. 1 is: People should not use personal devices to do company work,” Slade said. “Those computers are getting used personally, and therefore they’re susceptible — because of the things people might be doing — to malware, to viruses.”

Slade emphasized the importance of network security for the borough as both a local government and an employer.

“One of my concerns, always, for a government entity is the PII — the personal identifiable information — that you collect from your constituents for your billing, credit card information or (Automated Clearing House) information,” Slade said. “Not only the borough citizens, but your employees, too.”

Slade said the firm assessed security policies, hardware and software in the borough’s main office, public works department and water treatment facility.

“A lot of our things are very old here, from 2014-2015,” she said. “We do have a few things we can salvage and save as we do this, and I have a staged approach of how I’d like to move along.”

The proposed improvements were broken down into three phases.

“Phase one is the takeover phase, and the takeover phase is really laying the foundation of the network itself,” Slade said. “It’s kind of the core things: it’s the firewalls that we’re looking at, it’s the switches — it’s what everything connects to on the network.”

This phase would improve physical infrastructure for the borough’s network and update security and accounting software.

“Phase two, then, is about the computers themselves,” Slade said.

The firm recommended replacing the staff’s aging computers with laptops, monitors and docking stations.

In addition to adopting a work-only policy for laptops, Slade said the computers would be equipped with patch-management and antivirus software.

“Phase three is the server,” Slade said. “And this is where, on phase three, we get into a little bit more — because we’ve got to clean up the email here, and we’ve got to clean up how people share documents.”

The final phase would include a dedicated file server and operating system for the borough, as well as an updated domain name for email.

“The goal is to give a more professional environment to our email,” Slade said. “Along with that, then, we’re going to implement SharePoint.”

The borough’s SharePoint would allow departments to share files safely and securely through the cloud.

Slade teased an additional phase of updates to the municipal building itself — a monitor for the council chamber and tablets for council members.