Governance, Risk and Compliance, Security Strategy, Plan, Budget

Local cybersecurity gaining traction

StateScoop reports that local cybersecurity information and resource sharing initiatives have been making progress. Federal support through the $1 billion cybersecurity grant program is prompting increased cyber collaboration between local governments, according to San Francisco Chief Information Security Officer Michael Makstman and Boston CISO Greg McCarthy, who co-founded the Coalition of City CISOs in 2019. "With the infrastructure bill requiring the state to submit the plan with input from local government, it is forcing local government to come to the table and have these conversations with our state partners and understanding what the plan is," said McCarthy, who added that the coalition has strengthened communications between local governments and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. An advisory council including CISA and the FBI, as well as state officials and the private sector has also been held in Providence, Rhode Island, according to city Chief Cybersecurity Strategist Monsurrat Ottun. "We don’t need to have a different CISO for every single city. I think it’s really important for us to pool our resources and think about what’s going to be the best across the state," Ottun said.

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