Funding remains biggest challenge for cybersecurity leaders

A US-wide cybersecurity review has shown that finance and more sophisticated threats are the biggest concern for state and local governments.

The Center for Internet Security’s latest findings show that the top worries of US state, local, tribal and territorial organisations remain unchanged for the ninth consecutive year.

Of the 4,210 organisations that took part, 70 percent reported a lack of sufficient funding, and 64 percent cited increasing sophistication of threats. Other concerns include emerging technologies, a lack of documented processes in the event of an incident, and a lack of available cybersecurity professionals — 80 percent reported fewer than five dedicated security employees.

The no-cost, voluntary assessment programme, however, reveals that cyber maturity improved 4 percent year-on-year for returning participants and that state level organisations performed better than local levels.

“We are encouraged by the record high participation in this year’s [review],” said Tyler Scarlotta, Member Programmes Manage, Center for Internet Security. “Organisations that participate annually see marked improvement in cyber maturity year over year. Organisations with two or more years of participation saw a 23 percent higher score compared to first year participants, while those who have participated for nine consecutive years scored 41 percent higher.”

The majority of entities that took part have shown to be effective in detection, actively monitoring and safeguarding their environments. They also have response plans in place to address incidents if they occur. Additionally, they have established policies to restrict access to authorised users only.

However, there are areas where improvement is needed. These include risk management, updating and enhancing strategies, policies, and procedures, and establishing a comprehensive disaster recovery plan.

Some recommendations include taking advantage of federally funded programmes offered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. These include threat monitoring, Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting (MDBR), a highly effective protective domain name system (DNS) service, and annual assessments.

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