NASCIO Receives U.S. Department of Justice Grant to Advance Cybersecurity in the States
LEXINGTON, Ky., Wednesday, November 5, 2014. The U.S. Department of Justice has awarded the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) a National Justice Information Sharing Initiative grant to advance best practices in cyber incidence response planning and the use of cyber analytics at the state government level.
The award, in the amount of $100,000, continues the partnership begun in 1998 between NASCIO and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to advance enterprise architecture and information sharing in the states.
“Cybersecurity remains a top priority for state CIOs and CISOs as well as governors,” said Stu Davis, NASCIO president and Ohio chief information officer. “Our 2014 State CIO Survey presents a clear picture of the current cyber threat landscape as well as the most significant challenges states are facing in protecting state applications and citizen data. We’re thrilled to be partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice in addressing these challenges as we continue efforts to mature capabilities across all of the states and territories.”
The NASCIO proposal included several objectives which include developing guidance for the creation of a state Cybersecurity Disruption Response Plan and creation of best practices on the adoption of cyber threat analytics. NASCIO will work with the state law enforcement community, subject matter experts, and BJA to evaluate and promote current and emerging national cybersecurity strategies by complementing existing efforts and coordinating with national level cybersecurity initiatives.
“In the recently released Deloitte-NASCIO 2014 Cybersecurity study we learned that the majority of states do not have established plans and policies related to cybersecurity incident response and forensics,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO executive director. “Our goal is to bring all the states up to some level of parity related to these capabilities as well as cyber threat analytics. This support from the U.S. Department of Justice provides NASCIO the necessary resources to continue this work.”
