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State agencies prioritize common requirements
The 2023 State CIO Survey: The Power of Automation and the Reality of Modernization, published by NASCIO last year, noted that the SLCGP program was developed with the goal of directing 80 percent of its grants to local governments.
According to the study, “states are allowed to provide services locally rather than providing direct funding, and the majority of states have adopted a shared services approach.” Less than 10 percent of states chose to provide funding directly to local governments.
In a recent webinar produced by NASCIO and the Institute for Public Technology, experts said the state-funded shared services model is not necessarily what many local governments expected when DHS created the SLCGP Cybersecurity Fund. I admitted that it didn’t match.
“Many local governments were led to believe that they would actually receive direct funding, especially when 80% was supposed to go to them,” said Alan Shirk, executive director of PTI. . And of course the reality is that given the timing and the pressure to do something instead of doing nothing, the state ends up reinterpreting it and basically saying, “Yeah, we’re going to do that.” I’m going to give it to you.” It will be for your benefit, but as a service. ”
State governments implementing shared services through federal grants have historically taken a variety of approaches. For example, the Texas Department of Information Resources recently gave local governments until March 14 to apply for funding. He issued four recruitment announcements that align with cybersecurity goals set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- Governance and planning
- Rating and evaluation
- relief
- Human resource development
Shirk believes Texas has a good model in which the state spends money locally in a “decentralized network.”
“For me, that’s what we need. It’s not just about the money. It’s about the policies and structures that allow us to scale this appropriately,” Shirk said.
explore: Stay ahead of cyber threats with cybersecurity risk assessments.
Shared services support a whole-of-government approach
DHS provided $374.9 million in cybersecurity grants in fiscal year 2023. Texas received about $8.5 million for him in fiscal year 2022 and $17.4 million for her in fiscal year 2023. Local governments eligible to apply include counties. Political fragmentation. school district. junior college; tribal government; and cities, towns, and villages.
NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson praised the model as a good idea. “It makes a lot of sense to offer cybersecurity training services and have local governments spend that money instead of each local government spending the money on their own,” he said. State governments can maximize the impact of these funds through focused spending.
In its 2023 State CIO Survey, NASCIO asked state IT leaders what shared services they provide to local governments. The top three answers are:
- Cybersecurity training (51%)
- Risk assessment (40%)
- Endpoint detection (40%)
NASCIO cited the adoption and expansion of endpoint detection, cybersecurity awareness training, and identity and access management as the state’s “highest profile” cybersecurity efforts. Identity and access management is important not only to ensure permissions to the appropriate resources, but also to restrict access to individuals who are no longer authorized to do so.
In recent years, NASCIO has championed a statewide approach to cybersecurity, emphasizing cooperation and information sharing among state and local agencies within geographic boundaries. This is a strong and effective idea, and the predominant state approach of spending SLCGP funds on shared services is a great way to implement that idea.
This article is part of state tech‘s Citizen blog series.
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