Starting February 2023, the City of Pocatello has changed its domain, including email addresses, from its Pocatello.US domain to its new Pocatello.GOV domain.
With many online services, the .gov domain is a meaningful signal of identity and trust utilized by all government agencies. The DOTGOV Act of 2020 placed responsibility for managing the .gov registry in the hands of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA validates each .gov domain to ensure they are legitimate government entities. A .gov domain helps visitors identify the authenticity of a .gov address and ensures that emails are legitimately going to or coming from a government employee.
Administration of the Pocatello.GOV domain will have increased security features, including multi-factor authentication for administrator accounts and mandated Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connections. Additionally, as the City of Pocatello is hoping to receive funding from the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, it is necessary for the City to migrate to the .gov domain as a strategic element of its Cybersecurity Plans.
“The new domain is part of a long-term cybersecurity planning process to increase security while bolstering the trust of our citizenry when dealing with the City of Pocatello online,” said J. Chris Sorensen, City of Pocatello’s Chief Information Officer.
The old link, Pocatello.us, still works and will direct you to Pocatello.gov. This is the same for email addresses. Pocatello.US email addresses will be forwarded automatically to the new Pocatello.GOV domain. You can now rest assured that when visiting Pocatello.GOV, you will be communicating and doing business with City of Pocatello personnel.