Protecting Against Next-Generation Threats at the State and Local Government Level
Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock.com
Connecting state and local government leaders
Watch our recent editorial viewcast featuring Fairfax County, Virginia, CSIO Mike Dent and D.C. CIO Sagar Samant.
GovExec State & Local recently hosted a conversation with Mike Dent, the chief information security officer for Fairfax County, Virginia, and Sagar Samant, the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s chief information officer, to discuss how their respective organizations manage IT security threats and defend against potential cybersecurity attacks.
GovExec Senior Editor Michael Grass and Government Executive Media Group Editorial Events Editor Frank Konkel co-moderated the discussion, which covered a wide range of best practices and suggested approaches that other local governments dealing with security threats could learn from.
Some highlights of the discussion included Dent explaining how Fairfax County uses its unique geographic position in the National Capital Region to work with the District of Columbia and other nearby jurisdictions to coordinate against potential threats.
“We’ve integrated identity management across that network,” said Dent, who chairs the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Chief Information Security Officers group.
“We’ve pretty much federated all of our identity systems where anyone that’s in Montgomery County, Maryland, that’s accessing an application on that network … they can use their local jurisdiction credentials to access the application as long as they’ve gone through the process.”
Dent explained that the collaborative effort allows each jurisdiction to deploy resources in the event that a security attack has blocked the ability of another jurisdiction from independently responding.
“What that’s done is create a less management-intensive identity solution,” Dent said. “There are three jurisdictions now that can inter-dispatch their first responder equipment. The three areas that touch actually have access to dispatch each other’s equipment in the event there is an emergency.”
Samant explained how properly training agency employees on security issues is just as important to blocking potential threats as any specific software or data management practice.
“Whenever people come to your organization, include the security ordinance training as part of your onboarding process,” he said. “When you talk about your login, how to get your benefits, make sure there is one section that talks about security.”
Samant said that security threat training should be mandatory for any new employees to an organization but also encouraged agencies to consider making regular online training exercises an institutionalized requirement.
“In my case, I’m responsible for the tax information. Every employee must go through an online training course every year,” Samant said. “In my case, I would do it every three months. Not only do you have to have those educational things, you’ve got to have a proper mechanism to enforce it.”
Watch the video from the editorial viewcast, underwritten by Dell Software, here:
(Image by Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock.com)
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