An independent consultancy report has identified several chinks in the armor of Dallas County’s IT department after a year of significant cyber issues.

The results of a study conducted by Gartner, an IT consulting firm, were presented to Dallas County commissioners during a meeting on Tuesday. The two-hour presentation identified two major areas needing improvement within Dallas County’s IT department: decision-making and staff.

As previously covered in The Dallas Express, North Texas has seen its fair share of cyber incidents this year, with hackers targeting not just Dallas County but also the City of Dallas and the North Texas Municipal Water District. The actions of ransomware and extortion groups have prompted considerable discussion surrounding cybersecurity among the authorities.

Yet for Dallas County, which has been without an IT director since July, the vulnerabilities in its computer systems, including passwords, document disposal, public network, and reCAPTCHA, had been flagged months before hackers took advantage of them and posted sensitive data online in October.

There have been other significant hiccups, such as a massive data breach caused by officials auctioning off thousands of computers still containing sensitive information, the late payments to thousands of employees and vendors after a bumpy update to the financial management system, and the loss of $2.4 million after a wire transfer was made to a fraudster claiming to be one of Dallas County’s business partners.

Gartner’s report suggested that Dallas County had overspent on software and hardware by as much as $20 million last year when compared to other counties, misdirected funds, and fueled a staffing crisis in which 24 of 146 IT positions are currently vacant, according to The Dallas Morning News. Moreover, as Bob Jirgal, a senior managing partner at Gartner, told commissioners during the presentation, there was no team in place to support county departments when transitioning to new software, leading to significant delays and problems.

Overall, the issues plaguing Dallas County boiled down to a faulty decision-making process, according to the consultants.

“IT is not included early enough in processes to help the county make smart decisions,” Alexandra Dmytriw, a senior director at Gartner, said, according to the DMN. “When IT leaders have been invited, we have heard examples of their voices being squashed down, which has created a situation where they don’t feel comfortable to come forward and say we know things need to be different.”

Commissioner Elba Garcia acknowledged that members of the IT department have not felt like they could push back against decisions the commissioners court has made that at times went against the recommendations of senior IT staff, the DMN reported.

Restructuring is desperately needed, Gartner’s report claimed, but Dallas County’s IT issues won’t be resolved overnight.

“You can’t flip the switch from where you are today and say, ‘IT, now you have ownership.’ You’ve got leaders you need to bring in. You’ve got investment to make. You’ve got to get your staffing gaps fixed,” Jirgal said, per the DMN.