As workforce hits ‘crisis’ level, cyber leaders push forward

On the Priorities Podcast, NASCIO Policy and Research Director Meredith Ward and Deloitte’s Srini Subramanian say state cybersecurity leaders are staring down a workforce gap as they work to protect government networks.

Those findings were prominent in NASCIO and Deloitte’s biennial cybersecurity report, which also found that more local governments and school districts are turning to states for help dealing with ransomware and other threats.  

“The workforce issue has really reached a crisis level with cybersecurity workforce in state government,” Ward tells StateScoop Managing Editor Benjamin Freed. “Competing for salaries, trying to retain folks when there’s other opportunities has been a real challenge.”

Also on the podcast, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Technology Services Charles Carter talks a critical-resource tracking service his agency developed during the COVD-19 pandemic to help hospitals comply with federal and state reporting requirements. The project won an award from NASCIO last week for business process innovation.

In the news this week: 

The use of mapping technology in voter registration systems and the drawing of precinct boundaries is expected to grow quickly over the next half-decade, according to new research from the National States Geographic Information Council. The group recently concluded its Geo-Enabled Elections Project, which tracked how state election directors integrate GIS into their data systems. 

A report published Wednesday found that just one in four local election offices have moved their websites to the federally administered .gov domain, even as the Department of Homeland Security has made site registrations free.

NASCIO announced that Tennessee CIO Stephanie Dedmon will serve as the group’s president for the next year, as well as several other changes to its executive committee. Dedmon succeeds Maryland’s Michael Leahy.

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