What Water-System Attacks Reveal About Local Infrastructure
Over the last weekend of July, cyberattacks disrupted automated controls at water utilities, locking operators out of equipment and interrupting pumping or treatment. In Georgia, a pressure drop prompted a boil water advisory for Clayton County Water Authority’s 300,000 customers. By early August, incidents had been reported in at least 12 states.
The disruption depended partly on how utilities responded. Minnesota brought together state agencies, federal partners, and affected utilities. Plymouth disconnected cellular equipment and continued operating manually, while Braham restored its well and treatment plant in about two hours. Minnesota reported no drinking water quality impacts or boil water advisories.
These incidents followed federal warnings issued since April about Iran-affiliated actors exploiting internet-connected controllers. A similar campaign in 2023 exploited default passwords at a Pennsylvania water authority, although the summer attacks remain unattributed and under investigation.
The risk extends beyond water systems because similar controllers operate municipal buildings, lift stations, and electric utilities. Their protection requires coordination between IT and the people running those services. This summer’s response showed how knowing the equipment, preparing manual procedures, and establishing response partnerships can help crews maintain operations while an attack is contained.
Free Cybersecurity Assessments and Exercises for State and Local Governments
Fractional Source and Sourcewell Ventures are expanding their cybersecurity pilot to state and local governments, offering free assessments and exercises to help agencies prepare for cyber incidents.
Community Spotlight: Mayor Rob Medina, Palm Bay - A Homegrown Chatbot for Residents and Staff
Rob Medina has served as mayor of Palm Bay, Florida, since November 2020. He won a second four-year term in the 2024 municipal primary with 55.33% of the total, in a four-candidate field. His closest challenger, Tatiana Rosado, received 23.37%, and the margin allowed Medina to avoid a runoff and continue in office without interruption.
Medina is originally from New York and moved to Palm Bay after serving in the United States Marine Corps. He has lived in the city for more than 38 years and is married with six children and ten grandchildren. He holds a Master of Arts in Theology from Life Christian University, where he graduated magna cum laude.
His public career spans county and federal offices. He worked as an aide to
Brevard County Commissioner Jackie Colon from 2000 to 2008 and serves as
Director of Community and Military Relations for U.S. Congressman Mike Haridopolos. He is also Director of Ministry at House Family Ministries Church in Palm Bay, and he describes his approach to office as servant leadership built on public trust and open, accessible government.
Much of his community work centers on veterans. He has helped veterans receive Congressional Gold Medals, Bronze Star Medals, and Purple Heart Medals. In 2019, he received his second Congressional Medal of Recognition for his service to the veteran community. He has also worked as a youth mentor and as a football and baseball coach.
In his May 2025 State of the City address, Medina reported that Palm Bay issued nearly 14,000 building permits in 2024 with a combined value of about $1.4 billion, including a $144 million increase in commercial projects. The GO Roads Initiative completed more than 418 miles of road improvements under a $150 million program, and the new South Regional Water Reclamation Facility neared completion. The police department's reinstated General Crimes Unit handled about 375 cases in its first year, and Matthew Morton, who brings more than 25 years of experience, joined as city manager that month.
His May 21, 2026, address pointed to continued reductions in crime and the opening of Fire Station-7 and Building E, a 39,142-square-foot facility for city departments and the Emergency Operations Center. The city welcomed more than 400 new businesses during 2025 and made further investments in utilities and in roadway and transportation planning.
On technology, Palm Bay began evaluating AI tools in 2025 because it was concerned that commercial platforms could expose municipal data to outside parties. City staff also wanted to limit AI drift, in which a model produces answers that stray from approved information. By early 2026, the city completed its own AI chatbot, a project led by Director of Information Technology Rob Beach.
The system runs on open-source tools hosted on city-owned servers. It uses retrieval-augmented generation, which limits answers to vetted city documents and keeps responses tied to approved sources. Residents and staff can ask about city policies, department information, calendars, and staff directories.
Safeguards include input screening, checks for attempts to bypass the system, scrubbing of output for leaked internal data, and routing of common questions to set answers that skip the language model. The project helped remove the recurring subscription cost of the commercial chatbot the city used before.
Medina’s second term spans the demands of a growing city, from roads and utilities to public safety and access to municipal services. The chatbot supports Medina’s goal of making city government more accessible by helping residents find information about policies, departments, and services without knowing which office to contact.
Growing cities need more than ambitious plans. They need experienced leadership to turn big priorities into lasting progress. Fractional Source connects public agencies with senior leaders who bring the expertise to move complex initiatives forward, on your terms and your timeline. Book a quick call with the Fractional Source team.
QUICK HIT NEWS
Whatcom County, Washington, has selected AidKit to run the technology platform for its Kids First Child Care Subsidy Program under a nearly $7.1 million contract through 2028. The program supplements the state's Working Connections subsidy for families with children up to age 5 who earn up to 75% of the state median income, about $104,500 a year for a family of four. It also makes bridge payments to providers for costs the state program does not cover. The platform will handle applications, eligibility review, provider payments, and fraud detection.
Pima County, Arizona, broke ground on September 24 on a $30.3 million middle mile fiber network that will run 134 miles from Nogales to Tucson. The open access network is funded by a 2023 grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and will be built over five years. The county's Office of Digital Inclusion leads the project with the Arizona Commerce Authority and the Arizona Department of Transportation. Internet service providers can use the network to extend local connections into underserved parts of the county.
Orange County, Florida, commissioners unanimously approved micromobility rules that take effect immediately in unincorporated areas and in cities without their own ordinances. The rules set speed limits of 10 mph on sidewalks and shared paths and 20 mph on roads, bike lanes, and trails. Devices need lights, reflectors, and brakes, and riders and passengers under 16 must wear helmets. Violations carry a $100 fine and possible impoundment. Orlando Health reported 3 deaths and 124 emergency visits tied to these devices from January to July 2026, with 82 of the patients aged 13 or younger.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission has deployed an Ericsson private 5G network across about five square miles of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The network supports paperless work orders in connected vehicles, live video from moving tram cars, and communications for remote workers, with turnaround analytics for terminal operations planned. MSP has four runways and served more than 36 million passengers in 2025. The airport is among the first in the country to move from wired communications infrastructure to private 5G.
FOR THE COMMUTE
GWAC was no longer relevant, needed (Ask the CIO)
NITAAC Director Ricky Clark explains why the agency canceled CIO-SP4 after five years of procurement work. A multi-agency review found more than 93% overlap between its contractors and those already available through GSA. CIO-SP4 was meant to be a $50 billion governmentwide acquisition contract replacing CIO-SP3 for general IT, biomedical research, and health IT services.
RESOURCES & EVENTS
We’re heading to ICMA 2026
State and local leaders are being asked to do more with less, modernize aging systems, navigate workforce challenges, manage emerging technology and still deliver for their communities.
Those are exactly the conversations we want to have.
Fractional Source connects public-sector organizations with experienced leaders who can step in when you need specialized expertise, additional capacity or a fresh perspective, without adding another full-time position.
If you’ll be at ICMA, come find us at Booth 1352. We’d love to hear what your organization is working through.
📊 Report Spotlight: Power Research and Growth with a Modern Data Platform (Everpure)
This brief examines how storage limitations affect research, campus services, and AI adoption in higher education. It cites findings that 59% of higher education technology leaders identify storage and management capacity as their biggest challenge in maintaining on-premises assets, while 57% of institutions consider AI a strategic priority. The brief outlines four areas for modernization: performance, cyber resilience, cost management, and AI readiness.
INSIGHT OF THE WEEK
A proposed $1.075 billion transmission project in western Ohio is facing local opposition as federal lawmakers push to speed up energy permitting. Grid Growth Ventures, backed by AEP and FirstEnergy, plans to connect central Ohio substations to the Indiana border, but officials along proposed routes have raised concerns about farmland, property rights, and future development. PJM approved the project to address grid reliability needs, but its route still requires approval from the Ohio Power Siting Board. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel estimates state ratepayers could pay about $660 million and argues that cost allocations should account for the data centers driving new demand.
