Recent Grants

The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) provides funding to eligible state, local, and territorial (SLT) governments to manage and reduce systemic cyber risk, thus improving the security of critical infrastructure and improving the resilience of the services SLT governments provide their community.

Minnesota Program:

Funded by the federal State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP), the Whole-of-State Cybersecurity Plan provides eligible entities the framework that Minnesota will use to provide the tools, resources, and information you need to secure the data that Minnesotans have entrusted to your organization. The plan is a collaborative initiative designed to ensure security best practices and ultimately protect the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of Minnesota information systems. https://mn.gov/mnit/assets/MN%20Whole%20of%20State%20Cybersecurity%20Plan%20Participant%20Guide_tcm38-591642.pdf

Security services available:

MNIT offers enterprise-grade services to local government entities to help them strengthen and secure their cybersecurity defenses. These sophisticated services are available at a subsidized cost through grant funding.

• Managed Detection and Response (MDR): A 24/7 solution that looks for the types of attacks that could lead to data breaches, ransomware, or other major events and blocks those attacks. This service currently is available to Minnesota local government entities, including counties, cities, townships, K-12 school districts, and Tribal Nations.
• Internal Vulnerability Management Service (IVMS): Enterprise-class vulnerability tools use scanning technology to identify, assess, prioritize, and remediate security vulnerabilities. This service currently is available only to Minnesota counties, port cities, and Tribal Nations.
• External Vulnerability Management Service (EVMS): A combination of attack-surface management and vulnerability scanning tools perform external scans to assess an entity's threat and vulnerability posture from an outside perspective. This service currently is available only to Minnesota counties and executive branch agencies.

This funding will drive toward four goals:

1. Help local governments, Tribal Nations, and school organizations acquire the tools and resources they need to enhance their existing baseline cybersecurity capabilities. It will also support them with real security experts available through an expanded Cyber Navigator Program. Cyber Navigators are security experts who are allocated 100% to help participants. 
2. Expand the use of advanced cybersecurity detection and defensive tools and capabilities to join all of Minnesota in a cybersecurity chain with a set of solid links that will form a barrier for the safety of all Minnesotans. Our joint statewide team will have no weak links when we are done.
3. Expand threat intelligence analysis and collaboration throughout Minnesota by partnering with security organizations at the federal, state, local, and private industry levels to quickly share security intelligence in a way that helps organizations respond. 
4. Bring security products, services, and resources to critical infrastructure through strategic partnerships.