How State and Local Agencies Can Join Forces to Strengthen Security

For state and local governments and educational institutions, the threat landscape can seem increasingly daunting. Even as malicious actors grow more sophisticated and lethal, agencies continue to face significant obstacles in their efforts to defend their systems and data: cyber workforce shortages, a proliferation of point solutions that don’t interoperate, and stringent budgets that limit access to much-needed resources. As it stands, it’s not a fair fight.

To change the odds, agencies need to change how they approach cybersecurity. One emerging concept is whole-of-state security, in which state and local agencies collaborate on their defenses, sharing information and resources, said Thomas MacLellan, Director of Government Affairs and Strategy at Palo Alto Networks. “Given the ability to leverage orchestration and automation tools, you really can begin to ramp up what you’re able to provide,” MacLellan said.

In this video interview, McLellan discusses whole-of-state security and related measures that can help state, local and educational organizations to strengthen their cyber posture. Topics addressed include:

• Evolving threats to critical infrastructure, especially at the local level
• The benefits of establishing joint security operations centers
• The importance of gaining visibility into all resources accessible through the public internet (i.e., your attack surface)