On Cybersecurity, Federal Guidance is Absent and Local Governments Won’t Let Techies In

WASHINGTON, January 27, 2022 – Software and networking company Cisco is asking state governments to let it in on the conversation of cybersecurity.

Mike Witzman, the director of systems engineering at Cisco, said at a cybersecurity event hosted by the Information Technology Industry Council on Wednesday that the company wants to be more than a product or service and wants to be involved in government conversations about improving security against vulnerabilities.

Witzman emphasized the need to bolster public-private partnerships in front of Texas and Florida representatives Wednesday. That included Amanda Crawford, chief information officer for the State of Texas, who said the state’s plan includes responding to cybersecurity events with the urgency of natural disasters.

The problem currently hampering the Lone Star state, according to Crawford and Texas House Representative Giovanni Capriglione, is that local governments are not participating in cyber matters as much as they could or should. They also blamed a lack of guidance from the federal government on their cybersecurity preparedness.

Training for cybersecurity and individual protection

James Grant, Florida’s chief information officer, said that his state is focused on bringing recent graduates in for cyber training to prepare the state in protection measures.

The discussion also raised the need for citizens to protect themselves. That included getting citizens to do basic things like use stronger passwords and activate multi-factor authentication to protect their data.