Surrey council will be voting Monday (May 24) on whether or not to upgrade its databases – at a cost of roughly half a million dollars – “to meet enhanced security requirements for policing information.”
Staff is recommending that council approve a purchase from Oracle Corporation, for database security modules and one year of maintenance, at a cost of $503,525, according to a corporate report from General Manager of Corporate Services Rob Costanzo and General Manager of Policing Transition Terry Waterhouse.
It includes three modules for a total of $335,005 and one year of maintenance for each at a total of $73,701, plus tax for each.
After that, there would be an ongoing annual maintenance fee of $82,545, including taxes.
The report states that the city is currently “developing the information technology system to support the board and the Surrey Police Department,” and once it’s operations, “sensitive data will need to be stored.”
The city’s applications are protected using “state-of-the-art security tools and practices,” according to the report, but it doesn’t currently host any “sensitive police information.”
Because of the “heightened sensitivity” of the data that will be stored in the city’s existing software applications, the report states that a security review was conducted by an “independent third party.”
The report states that the third-party review found that three “add-on modules” are needed to “enhance the overall security” of the technology and to “help mitigate the risk of unauthorised access.” Those modules are meant to “work seamlessly together without impacting user performance.”
According to the report, the city is “eligible to receive previously negotiated” provincial government rates for the Oracle database security modules, and the funding is “available in the approved 2020 Policing Transition Budget.”
It was in February that the Ministry of Public Safety announced the City of Surrey had been given the approval to set up its municipal force.
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lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com
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