Digital transformation in state and local governments—well underway pre-pandemic—was turned up a notch during the past two years as agencies suddenly found themselves required to interact remotely with constituents, organizations and other government entities. In the 2021 survey of state CIOs by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, one respondent was quoted saying the pandemic sparked “10 years’ worth of deployments in eight months.”
It’s no surprise then that the NASCIO survey reports 83% of CIOs ranked adopting enterprise identity and access solutions (IAM) as their highest priority area for the next two years. With dozens of agencies handling highly sensitive information in settings that require collaboration and speed, state and local governments must work together to establish a baseline for securing and accessing data in a way that fosters trust.
Pitfalls and challenges
Fraud and cyberattacks are on the rise as threat actors attempt to infiltrate all levels of government and the nation’s critical infrastructure. Adversaries are accessing systems for many illicit purposes, including filing fraudulent claims, stealing citizen and employee data and executing ransomware attacks. The NASCIO survey reports 20% of states have seen an increase in cyber incidents since their workforce went remote.
Closing the gaps and reducing cyber risk isn’t easy. There are roughly 145 million state and local government employees working across hundreds of different agencies—traditionally siloed from one another—now needing to connect efficiently and remotely. However, the NASCIO survey revealed that only 13% of states reported having adopted a full enterprisewide IAM solution, rendering many agencies still in need of implementing critical security controls, with multifactor authentication (MFA) as the top priority. < ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
