One of the most pressing challenges government entities and the public sector face is how to maintain existing and outdated IT systems without the budgetary, labor or infrastructure resources required to upgrade them. Hiring freezes, layoffs, talent loss and shortages, as well as up-skilling and infrastructure modernization initiatives, are made even more complicated due to the impacts of COVID-19 and remote work.
It isn’t always possible to hire new staff or implement new technology, so one solution is to build resilience into existing infrastructure. The concept of cyber resiliency is an evolving one, but in essence, the intention is to fortify structures so that they can operate continuously and without disruption, even when under attack. Effective cyber resiliency ensures data protection as well as operational and business continuity—going beyond traditional cybersecurity defense to build a more adaptive, proactive, and embedded security stance.
Competing IT Concerns Impacting Government Cybersecurity
Worldwide government IT spending is forecast to total $438 billion in 2020, a decrease of 0.6% from 2019, according to the latest forecast by Gartner published in August. While this decrease does not seem significant at first glance, it provides additional context to the cybersecurity talent shortage in government and the public sector. Given this, one of the biggest issues currently facing government IT managers is how to maintain existing, outdated systems without the budgetary resources needed to upgrade them or the labor resources to support them.
While adding staff isn’t always an option, organizations should be careful that they aren’t just throwing additional, sophisticated tools at existing employees to solve the problem. It’s not realistic to expect personnel to have the bandwidth required to sort through additional da ..
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