From: Government Technology
While the federal government works on big-picture solutions, state and local government agencies are under tremendous pressure to secure critical data, infrastructure and services.
Moreover, the massive amount of valuable data housed by state and local agencies is an attractive target for cybercriminals seeking financial gain. Hackers steal, then sell or leverage, sensitive data including Social Security and driver’s license numbers, credit card information, and health-care records, among other things. This creates havoc for compromised citizens. Likewise, intellectual property, trade secrets and contract negotiations are lucrative targets, and a successful breach at this level could bring an enterprise, industry or public agency to its knees. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision an array of devastating scenarios.
The IT organizations inside state and local agencies are focused like never before on keeping their networks — and the data of the citizens they serve — secure against cyberthreats. But they face some critical challenges in doing so.
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