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Overtaxed State CISOs Struggle With Budgeting, Staffing
CISOs for US states face the same kinds of challenges those at private companies do: lots of work to handle, but not necessarily enough money or people to handle it sufficiently well.
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Timothy Swope via Alamy Stock
Chief information security officers (CISOs) of US states are being stretched thin by widening responsibilities and insufficient resources to achieve them.
Today, and for some time now, every state and the District of Columbia has had its own, dedicated CISO office.
"In the early 2000s, the advent of the Internet and the desire to develop citizen-facing applications accessible from the Internet really started that trend," explains Srini Subramanian, co-author of the newly released biennial cybersecurity report from Deloitte and the National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). State governments, he notes, are as attractive as cyber targets as any company.
"States collect, share, and use data of residents from birth, including school, driving records, health records, and more," he explains. "So they do have very comprehensive information about people in very large volumes, which makes them attractive targets."
Like CISOs of corporations, these individuals are responsible for building and managing statewide IT security programs and policies, managing cyber-risks and incident response efforts, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and standards, and more. Also like CISOs of corporations, state CISOs face the same hindrances to their jobs.
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