Security: What governments must do now

Many state and local governments have long faced a variety of IT security challenges including a lack of IT resources, identity management and keeping up with continually evolving security threats. When the pandemic hit, some familiar security challenges escalated, and others, while not exacerbated by the pandemic, continue to expose state and local governments to security risks.

Here are some common security challenges state and local governments are grappling with today, and steps that can be taken to address them.

• Increased network security risks
  Because so many government employees are now working remotely, more security risks have been introduced, which has made managing ransomware and other threats more complex. Discussions with CIOs and the Center for Digital Government (CDG) establish that as a result of this situation, the majority of local governments are experiencing a higher rate of cyberattacks.
• Multiple identity and access management systems
  Identity and access management — making sure the right people are getting to the right systems and applications at the right time — has been an ongoing struggle for years. Governments often have disparate identity management systems, which introduces security risks because every employee then has multiple digital identities, increasing the chance that someone might accidentally be granted the wrong permissions, or that terminated employees may continue to have access to confidential data. I used to work for a county government that had 55 different systems with identity management pieces bolted onto them.
• Lack of IT staff specializing in security
  State and local governments struggle to recruit and retain IT resources that are well-versed in cybersecurity, largely because they’re competing with higher-paying private sector companies. According to the 2020 CDG Digital Cities and Counties survey¹, over 75 percent of local governments have said they need more cybersecurity staff.

What’s a government to do?

Any of these challenges can be faced head on with the right partner. Partnering with organizations in the private sector is a good first step that can help governments determine the scope of the investment they need to make, and develop a solid security strategy that addresses areas of risk exposure. Organizations like the CDG provide events and workgroups that help connect government CIOs with those private sector partners as well as other government CIOs so they can learn from each other and not have to reinvent the wheel when they design their security strategies.

No matter what your security strategy, effectively executing upon it requires a partner with a modern network. Modern networks and applications provide an enhanced ability to ward off cyberattacks, and also to recover more quickly from them because they have built-in security.

Many technology partners even provide managed modern network solutions and applications where everything including security, maintenance and support is taken care of by experienced technicians, which minimizes the struggle to hire the right IT staff.

The question is, what partners and modern network solutions are out there?