LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Across the United States, government agencies are looking at ways to better protect themselves from threats. They are working with experts to discuss the tools, processes, and resources needed to become a more resilient organization.
These forms of technology are the main focus of this week’s edition of Tech Tuesday.
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers, the Center for Digital Government, and IBM released a report that interviews state information officers, including here in Michigan, to get their take on the growing number of threats state governments face on a daily basis.
“I would call it both threats and opportunities and cyber is part of it,” said Frank Attaie, Technology General Manager of IBM’s U.S. Public Sector.
And he says there is technology available now and a real skills gap in the marketplace, which creates an opportunity — especially when it comes to using artificial intelligence.
“You really will have a difficult time in managing at scale potential cyber incidents without infusing artificial intelligence,” Attaie said.
Which Michigan Chief Information Officer Laura Clark says can fill in some of the gaps, and shift those tasks off employees plates, so that existing staff can focus on more complex issues that need to be solved.
“The environment and sustainability, digital experience for clients, resiliency, these things come together, but you will not find a CIO that is not focused on the challenge and consistent and constant challenge and evolving challenge as it pertains to cyber,” Clark said.
Other threats released in the report have to do with leadership turnover and administrative instability, cyberattacks and fraud, technical debt and legacy systems.
“Because you want to be at least one or two steps ahead,” Clark said.
You can view the full report here.