How to stay a step ahead of cybersecurity threats in government

A wide range of internal and external forces are changing the way state and local governments manage network security.

Pressure is increasing on these organizations to provide easy and convenient digital data access to constituents. At the same time, government networks are increasingly integrating Internet of Things (IoT) devices — sensors, automated controls and other tools — that have the potential to make networks vulnerable.

The high value of the data housed on government networks makes them a favored cybersecurity target, and state and local governments find themselves poorly protected compared to their private sector enterprise counterparts. Some are challenged by maintaining and securing legacy systems, while others are stymied by a lack of resources. Government leaders say that finding staff with cybersecurity expertise is also holding them back.

Even governments with security expertise need to continually adapt. The threats targeting state and local governments are constantly evolving. The profiles of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware and email spoofing are changing as cybercriminals tap new technology and develop clever workarounds to gain access to and steal sensitive data. Attacks can have devastating results: Entire applications and services may be rendered useless, and the cost to recover can be in the millions of dollars.

To protect your organization, it pays to understand today's threats and the trends shaping tomorrow's network data breach attempts.