There May be Some Ways to Stay Ahead of the Hackers, Say Secretaries of State

February 3, 2021 – Data is and always has been subject to attacks by mal-intentioned hackers.

But there may be some ways to stay ahead of the hackers, state-level secretaries of state said at a Wednesday event.

With cybersecurity researchers, politicians and government officials discussed what they needed to do to avoid digital breaches.

First, companies and governments need to have a vulnerability data plan. These plans need to be responsive to feedback internally and from the public. This means that in every organization, friendly hackers can provide critical feedback that allows security flaws to be exposed without running the risk of the flaws being used against themselves. Cybersecurity risks decrease for every vulnerability found and fixed.

The experts – speaking at the 2021 National Association of Secretaries of State conference –  agreed that 2020 was a banner year for cybersecurity, in part because of the presidential eElection. The state secretaries patted themselves on the back for how well their states handled the elections.

While building public trust in the election process is incredibly difficult, transparency about the process is the best way to build trust.

This relates to cybersecurity in that – like transparency, cybersecurity starts from the inside, but must be validated from the outside, said Marten Mickos, CEO of HackerOne.

States have a responsibility to prevent and deter hacks, but they can struggle with raising the resources to do so. Cybersecurity experts are hard to hire, and office space is often small. Yet state governments should be able to tap into federal government resources.

The panel agreed that states are facing growing ransomware threats.

Finding new ways to deter hacks is key, and maligned actors must be punished in order to feel that there is a serious risk if they attempt to breach U.S. cybersecurity.