State CIOs Eye Stronger Cyber Partnership With the Feds
The 30-some officials stressed the need for improved network defense and access to federal resources, during their annual Fly-In to Washington D.C.
WASHINGTON — State chief information officers want a strong cybersecurity partnership with the federal government, according to officials participating in a National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ delegation visit to the nation’s capital last week.
More than 30 state CIOs met with U.S. Department of Homeland Security representatives on Capitol Hill to discuss defending government networks and learn more about the federal resources available to states.
State CIOs took part in a briefing on DHS “lessons learned” from the December 2015 cyberattack on Ukrainian power infrastructure.
“Cybersecurity has been a top priority for NASCIO for the past several years,” Darryl Ackley, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Information Technology and NASCIO’s current president, said in Friday’s announcement. “We are glad to see that DHS and others are willing and eager to partner with us as we continue to address cybersecurity from a multitude of angles.”
The NASCIO delegation also met with representatives from the Internal Revenue Service to discuss Publication 1075, federal rules which govern the use, inspection and disclosure of federal tax information by state governments, which can be a barrier for CIOs trying to consolidate and optimize systems.
Cybersecurity and regulations impairing state IT and information sharing remain central focuses of NASCIO’s efforts.
The visit came on the heels of NASCIO’s 2016 midyear conference in Baltimore, where state CIOs and the state government IT community gathered to discuss topics like how become “resource managers” when procuring disruptive technology to secure against cyber threats. The federal General Service Administration’s digital services delivery office, 18F, was hailed as a procurement model for state government, but exactly what kind of partnership NASCIO envisions remains unclear.
Dave Nyczepir is a News Editor at Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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