The Joplin City Council will meet tonight at City Hall with several items on the agenda. Including a nearly $200,000 contract to upgrade the city’s internet services after a cyber attack caused widespread outages two months ago.

A cyberattack that started on Wednesday, July 7th crippled numerous Joplin city departments. As a result, Joplin’s IT staff shut down the city’s computer system to prevent the hack from spreading. In early August, City Manager Nick Edwards revealed that an insurer paid hackers $320,000 to regain control of the city’s network. Also, during this time the city council opened bidding for cyber security companies to strengthen Joplin against another attack.

11 companies proposed bids and city staff members were assembled to assess them for criteria such as experience, cost, and methodology. RAVENii, LLC of Kansas City, Missouri had the highest final score when compared to other companies and the most competitive bid at just over $197,000. Joplin city council members are expected to vote in favor of the contract with RAVENii on an emergency basis tonight. The meeting gets underway at 6 tonight. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro