States Follow Federal Footsteps on Cybersecurity
States including Texas are taking steps to combat these attacks and ensure better cyber defenses. Texas recently developed a new fund that will allocate federal dollars to state agencies to support information resources improvements. This fund, the Technology Improvement and Modernization Fund, stems from the efforts of 27 Texas agencies that pushed for the state legislature to allocate millions of dollars to address cybersecurity system risks. The funds will allow the state to upgrade severely outdated systems, protect state constituents’ information and improve cybersecurity defenses.
On the heels of this funding, the StateRAMP program announced its first Authorized Vendor List, giving state and local government IT and procurement officials more confidence in their cloud service providers solutions that process, store, and/or transmit government data.
Like its federal counterpart, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, StateRAMP is based on a “certify once, use many” concept that saves time and reduces costs for both service providers and government agencies. Programs like this aim to drive consistent cybersecurity defenses across vulnerable state and local government organizations.
As both federal and state funding becomes available and state and local agencies continue driving the improvement of cybersecurity posture, state and local government IT leaders must have plans in place to fully leverage these resources.
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