UMBC/ICMA Survey of Local Government Cybersecurity Practices

In 2016, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), conducted a survey to better understand local government cybersecurity practices. The results of this survey provide insights into the cybersecurity issues faced by U.S. local governments, including what their capacities are, what kind of barriers they face, and what type of support they have to implement cybersecurity programs.

The survey was sent on paper via postal mail to the chief information officers of 3,423 U.S. local governments with populations of 25,000 or greater. An online submission option was also made available to survey recipients. Responses were received from 411 of the governments surveyed, yielding a response rate of 12%.

A summary of the results written by ICMA staff is available here.

The Social Work Student Association hosted Jacki Stone, a UMBC faculty member in the Vice President for Student Affairs’ Office, to present on behaviors of concern. The presentation discussed a spectrum of worrying behaviors, from typical signs of daily stress to stalking and relationship violence. While a plethora of ways to prevent campus violence exist, one of the most emphasized solutions given was to engage with community members.

While the Social Work Student Association focuses its attention on social work majors and minors, Tanya Ramsey, a sophomore social work major with a desire to work in the adolescent trauma sector, reassured, “it’s open to everyone.” Stone’s work includes participating in the Green Dot initiative on campus, which means this presentation is available to everyone on campus. Green Dot intends to train individuals on how to prevent and reduce violence on campus.

As Stone introduced the presentation, she encouraged the audience to think from, “a campus perspective, career perspective and life perspective.” Although the “career perspective” directly applied to the room of social work majors, Stone stressed, “these are life skills.” The first half of the demonstration included a video from the Center for Protection and Safety.

The video outlined several behaviors, like mood changes, stalking, interest in violence and obsession, then categorized them on a spectrum from everyday behaviors to unacceptable ones. Since the video focused on preventing violence, three options of action were presented to the viewers. If one witnesses a behavior that makes them uncomfortable, uneasy or raises concern, they can report the behavior to a staff or faculty member (anyone from an RA to a professor or campus police), make a mental note of the behavior or simply talk to the person who exhibited the behavior.

Stone talked about the work she does on campus and said that her position of Community Health and Safety Specialist became essential in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Stone said it arose from, “this idea that there’s this one student and a bunch of people had seen the behaviors but there was nowhere to report.

“[My colleagues are] the collectors of information in that way. One person may say something that may seem insignificant, but 3 people could have reported them also,” she added.

Stone’s personal advice on what to do if you are unsure if you should report what you have seen is, “lots of times there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, but if you don’t report it, we won’t know.” Her department, located in Commons 319, is trained in how to discern campus threats from someone having a rough day, but she still encourages everyone to report worrying behaviors because “there is no profile of a campus threat — it could be anyone.”

To report a behavior, Stone emphasized the use of intuition and context. “Sometimes folks say stuff that they don’t really mean,” she started. “But anything about harm of others or harm of self [is a red flag].” If you are unclear on whether a behavior is worrying, Stone continued, “it’s thinking about context: is it appropriate to be searching guns in a classroom about physics?” Reports can be filed with the campus police department, campus life or a campus employee you trust.

The frequency at which stories appear detailing the plight of renters is mind-boggling. It leaves many people wondering: why does the relationship between landlords and renters seem increasingly antagonistic? The struggle between the two parties sticks out as a pattern in recent news.

An article published by the Baltimore Sun reported on a new measure being debated in the Maryland Senate. It would strip landlords of their right to evict non-compliant tenants if the unit of the tenant in question poses a risk for lead poisoning. Another article reported on a fire that burnt down much of a complex in Hartford.

The first situation many would view the landlord as being irresponsible and as being clearly at fault. The second scenario, however, will be perceived by many as being much more ambiguous from an ethical standpoint.

Although it may seem like a landlord does not have complete control over the various misfortunes that may affect his complex, these two situations are emblematic of a phenomena many sociologists refer to as “structural violence”. Structural violence is a situation whereby a group of people are systematically barred from accessing that which is needed to fulfill their basic needs and from enjoying certain basic rights.

The relationship between tenants and landlords comes into play in the administration of said structural violence. It may seem like a cliche, but ultimately the root of the antagonism lies in the fact that landlords are more interested in skirting safety regulations than they are in actually guaranteeing them.

Baltimore is a case study into the effects of structural violence. The city is marred by a legacy of segregation and as a result Baltimore’s poor black citizens are relegated to substandard housing conditions.

This form of structural violence, although incredibly pernicious, is not unique to Baltimore. In June 2017, many analysts used the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London, England as a jumping off point to discuss larger issues of inequality in the United Kingdom. They also studied the ways in which residents were being neglected by their landlords and their local politicians.

Grenfell Tower was home to mostly poor and working class immigrants. Multiple prominent figures in the UK have even drawn on the concept known as “social murder,” originally coined by Friedrich Engels in his work, “The Conditions of the Working Class in England”. It extends the logic of structural violence and posits that the placement of the working class in untenable and dangerous housing conditions is deliberate.

The metaphor is particularly applicable given that housing conditions are closely tied to the physical and mental state of all residents. The various health risks associated with lead poisoning make the effects poor housing conditions have on physical health seem readily apparent. However, research into the subject indicates that an unstable and fickle housing situation where residents cannot be guaranteed long term safety threatens the residents’ mental health as well.

Although the image of a cabal of greedy capitalists conspiring against the working class makes Engels’ analysis seem cartoonish, there is much to be taken away from it. If landlords choose to ignore the reality of inequality and segregation and refuse to fulfill their obligations to their residents, then they are complicit in the imposition of structural violence on Baltimore’s working class.

School shootings and gun violence are not new to the United States. There have been 17 school shootings in 2018 so far. 17 people were shot and killed at Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14. Since that day, discussions of gun violence in this country have not been the same. Although it is not the first argument of its kind, it is definitely the biggest and most controversial.

The students and victims of this shooting have taken this country by storm, demanding gun law reform from politicians and government officials. March for Our Lives, a student led demonstration in support of stricter gun laws, was held on March 28. Students shared their perspectives on the events of that day and how the United States can step forward and make sure school shootings do not happen again.

Some UMBC students were also in attendance, among them, junior theater major Talyiah Dickens. When asked about the crowds at the march she stated: “The crowd was full of supporters, but the amount of black and brown representation was undeniable. We came together to end the gun violence on [people of color].”

Of the many that gave speeches, some black students were in attendance and used this as an opportunity to address the gun violence that takes place in black communities and inner cities. While these speeches got an overall positive response, one can only wonder where all of this support was when black men, women and children were, and continue to be, victims of the same gun violence.

Although Chicago has seen a 16 percent decrease in violence from 2016 to 2017, 3,457 people became victims of gun violence last year. Nationwide, police officers shot and killed nearly 1,000 people in 2017, and although only comprising 13 percent of the US population, 22 percent of those killed were black people. 60 percent of the black women shot by police were unarmed.

All of these statistics are open to the public and easily accessible by a simple google search. Yet when Black Lives Matter protests occur and they demand reform, the same support seen for the Stoneman Douglas students is simply non-existent.

The black students at Stoneman Douglas have since voiced their opinions on gun violence and police brutality, as well as the issue of the increased police presence at Stoneman Douglas since the incident. Because black people are more likely to be  targeted by police, black students at Stoneman Douglas have a feeling of unease at school, especially considering the fact that they attend a predominantly white school. They feel as though their voices and concerns are not being heard to the extent of those of their counterparts.

They also feel that, in terms of media coverage, they are absent, although they make up 11 percent of the Stoneman Douglas population. The black students of Stoneman Douglas High School recently held their own press conference in which they wanted to make clear, they did not want to belittle or lessen the protest of their peers, but make sure that all voices were being heard. When it comes to gun control, all of those affected deserve to be heard rather than pushed to the sideline of the discussion.

UMBC professor Maurice Berger has received an award from the International Center for Photography for his “Race Stories” column in the New York Times Lens section. Berger, a research professor and Chief Curator for the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, has become a major national figure in his respective field of media studies.

The ICP’s Infinity Awards are considered some of the highest honors in photography and visual culture. The selection committee includes other art curators and academics in the field such as Isolde Birelmaier, Executive Director of Arts, Culture & Community at Westfield; Marina Chao, Assistant Curator at ICP; James Estrin, Lens blog co-editor and senior New York Times staff photographer; and Antwaun Sargent, writer and critic.

These awards have recognized emerging talent and major contributions to fields such as art, fashion, publishing, photography and photojournalism since 1985. On April 9, there will be an official gala commemorating this year’s ICP Infinity Award Invitees in New York City.

”I am honored to receive an award long considered important to the community of photographers, writers, editors, and curators of which I’m a part,” Berger said to UMBC News. “To write monthly for the New York Times about the ways photography mediates the issues of race fulfills a long held dream. To have that work acknowledged and rewarded by my peers, in addition to the incredible support I get from Times readers, is truly wonderful.”

Berger’s monthly column, titled “Race Stories”, is an unconventional look at the relationships between the concepts, themes and social issues surrounding race and photography. The essays explore a range of subjects and photographers, including contemporary African American art and Latino/a, Asian-American and Native American photography.

Berger’s motives are best encapsulated in his December 2017 essay Using Photography to Tell Stories About Race. He writes, “As a Jew, I have known anti-Semitism. As a gay man, I have known homophobia. But neither has seemed as relentless as the racism I witnessed growing up — a steady drumbeat of slights, thinly-veiled hostility and condescension perpetrated by even the most liberal and well-meaning people. It was painful to watch, and as my friends let me know, considerably more painful to endure.”

Berger hopes that these columns can help young people understand racial issues. He says to UMBC News, “I always write my essays for The New York Times and curate my exhibitions on race and visual culture with young people in mind… because if you can inspire a young person to see the world in new ways, then you can inspire anyone. I get a lot of emails from high school teachers and college professors, who tell me they routinely assign my ‘Race Stories’ essays to their students. I’m an educator, first and foremost. The principal purpose of my work is to teach racial literacy through visual culture.”

Berger’s work has been additionally showcased in other publications such as Wired, Artform and Aperture and the Los Angeles Times. His latest essay appears in an April special issue of National Geographic that covers the issues of race.