July 6, 2023 3:55 a.m.

As part of increased cybersecurity efforts, Douglas County Commissioners Tom Kress, Chris Boice and Tim Freeman, in conjunction with the county’s Information Technology Department, have announced that the county’s website and email system are in the process of transitioning to the dot gov domain.

A County release said the plan is to have all systems transitioned by next Monday July 10th. The change comes as local, regional, national and international governments, businesses and private organizations continue to be bombarded with cyber-attacks, ransom demands and security system breaches.

The release said dot com or dot org domains are different than dot gov domains. Dot gov domains are only issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.  CISA sponsors the dot gov domain and makes it available only to government organizations and publicly controlled entities.

While the change is coming soon, the old website and email addresses will continue to work seamlessly for many years to come.