Security
How we run a village site, and the paperwork your treasurer will ask for.
A village clerk and treasurer are auditors’ first line. These are the standards we operate to and the documents we hand over during procurement.
- Hosting
- Sites are served from Cloudflare’s network in the United States over HTTPS only, with HTTP redirected. The village’s .gov domain stays registered to the village; we hold the DNS records for it only at the village’s direction, and hand them back on request.
- Encryption
- Everything moves over TLS and rests encrypted. Meeting recordings and transcripts are stored in the United States.
- Backups
- Every record is backed up daily and a second copy kept in a separate region. Every published item, agenda, minutes, recording, request and payment record, also exports as plain files at any time, so the village always holds its own copy.
- Access
- Every Public Desk staff account uses multi-factor authentication and the least access its work needs. Village users have their own logins. Changes to published records are logged with who and when, and the log is part of the export.
- Payments
- Card and bank data never touch the village site or ours. Payments run on a processor-hosted page reached by a full redirect, which keeps the village’s PCI DSS scope to Self-Assessment Questionnaire A. The confirmation page carries the date, time, amount and confirmation number that General Municipal Law 5-b requires.
- Draft minutes
- Transcripts and draft minutes are produced from the village’s own recording and marked draft. Nothing is published as adopted minutes until the clerk publishes it after the board acts. Recordings are retained as the village directs, and for at least five years where Public Officers Law 103-a applies.
- Incidents
- If an incident affects a village’s data we notify the clerk within 24 hours with what happened, what was affected and what we did, so the village can meet its 72-hour report to the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services under General Municipal Law Article 19-C. We do not pay ransoms.
- Leaving
- Thirty days’ notice, a full export, and we keep the site up for sixty days after the term ends so the village can move it. There is no export fee and no deletion window shorter than that.
Documents
What comes with the proposal.
- W-9
- On request, with the proposal.
- Contract
- One page, annual, with a subject-to-appropriation clause and the export and notice terms above written in.
- Written information security policy
- Our WISP, covering the practices on this page, on request.
- Comptroller IT governance checklist
- Written answers to the items in the Office of the State Comptroller’s Local Government Management Guide on information technology governance, for the village’s own audit file.
- PCI
- The processor’s attestation of compliance and a note confirming the village’s SAQ A scope.
- Accessibility
- A WCAG 2.1 AA conformance statement for the site template, updated with each release.
- References and insurance
- Ask us.
Reporting a problem
Found something? Tell us.
Write to hello@publicdesk.co with what you saw. We answer security reports within one business day and will not pursue anyone who reports in good faith.