January 18, 2017–The National Association of State Chief Information Officers said today that a desire for “strong intergovernmental partnership on cybersecurity” tops its list of 2017 federal advocacy priorities.

Also making the group’s top issues list is the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and successful implementation of state plans, information sharing and safeguards, and flexibility in federal funding regulations that encourage legacy network system modernization and cloud service adoption.

“NASCIO’s 2016 Cybersecurity Study data indicates that the biggest challenge to cybersecurity as reported by state chief information security officers (CISOs) is insufficient budgets; this has been the number one challenge since the inception of the NASCIO Cybersecurity Study in 2010,” the group said today.

“In addition to the lack of funding, state CISOs report that compliance with voluminous federal security regulations redirects scarce state resources to compliance activity instead of those that would more effectively ensure the security of state government networks and digital assets,” it said. – John Curran, john.curran@wolterskluwer.com