Management

NASCIO Midyear 2017: Cybersecurity, Agility Take Center Stage

Mitigating hacking attacks, implementing more nimble procurement methods and more will be explored at this year's National Association of State Chief Information Officer’s Midyear Conference.

Juliet Van Wagenen

Juliet is the senior web editor for StateTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.

A new bill that aims to provide state and local governments grants to boost cybersecurity resilience is currently making its way through the House and Senate. The State Cyber Resiliency Act encourages states to draft cybersecurity strategies that aim to mitigate and enable a smooth recovery from hacking attacks, as well as bolster cybersecurity workforces, according to a statement.

The bill is a testament to the growing role of state and local governments in cybersecurity, as local governments launch their own initiatives around cyber innovation centers, bolstering workforces and more.

With security and risk management top of mind for chief technology officers and CIOs — and weighing in at the top of the list in the National Association of State Chief Information Officer’s Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2017 — it’s no surprise that it will feature as one of the main topics at the upcoming NASCIO Midyear 2017 Conference in Arlington, Va.

“We have a couple of learning lounges on cybersecurity issues, one around hacktivism, and we also have a number of CIO roundtables on cyber,” says Yejin Cooke, director of government affairs for NASCIO. “We’re hoping this is a place where new world CIOs can get together and share war stories, be consoled about whatever IT issue they are having back at home, and also learn more from others and their expertise.”

Delving Into Old Problems With New Solutions

The conference is also spotlighting blockchain adoption and continuing work on data management, “particularly with the explosion of Internet of Things devices and the data that they will generate,” Cooke adds, noting that 56 percent of CIOs are still investigating IoT in state government with informal discussions, according to the organization’s latest IoT report.

The organization will also release its preliminary findings for its survey around agile procurement solutions.

“State governments can oftentimes get a better product if we provide feedback during the procurement process. The agile methodology allows you to come back to the process in an iterative way, which is proving more helpful for CTOs in finding a business solution rather than a monolithic, one-time procurement of a system,” Cooke says.

StateTech will cover NASCIO’s Midyear 2017 Conference, digging into panel discussions and educational sessions, while also interviewing industry executives and experts on the most current health IT trends. Bookmark this page for stories and updates from the StateTech team, and be sure to keep up with conference conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #NASCIO17.

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