CybersecurityState, local governments aim to strengthen cybersecurity staff despite shrinking budgets

Due to increased cyberattacks on state and local government servers, many leaders are looking to strengthen the cybersecurity staff on their payrolls.

As Governing reports, lower levels of government are also worried about cybercrime due to the large amounts of personal and confidential data that they store.

“We house information for payroll purposes, for people’s health insurance. We are dealing with confidential legal information, confidential criminal information. We have an obligation to do everything in our power to protect all the data that the state has in it’s possession,” said Ann Visalli, the director of Delaware’s Office of Management and Budget.

For Visalli and others at her level, however, the biggest hurdle is being able to attract the skilled cybersecurity and coding experts that are needed to reinforce government networks. The research firm Burning Glass Technologies reports that the demand for cybersecurity experts is more than double the workplace demand for IT specialists. There are an estimated 300,000 cybersecurity jobs vacant within the United States, and that number is expected to continually rise given the amount of new threats.

Because of this, larger firms are able to attract many potential employees. The going salary for many of these positions usually is $120,000 or more, and that makes it harder for smaller public branches to compete.

“We really need to appeal to folks’ sense of the nobility of public service,” said Michigan CTO Rod Davenport. Officials in Davenport’s state report that Michigan currently is paying roughly 20 percent less than the current cybersecurity market rate.

In response, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies to help further foster the cyber workforce. Much of the initiative aims to work with local public IT departments on ways that they can strengthen their pre-existing structure and workforce to accommodate cyber security specialists, or train someone already within the department to do the job. It also makes room for departments and agencies to share trained specialists that are authorized for the job.

“There is some interest from people here [already in the department], just because it is a hot area and because IT people like diversity in their work. So that is something we are considering,” said Jack Harris, the director of network strategies for the state of Michigan.

Further, the overhaul allowed recruiters to exempt new hires from traditional state government pay scales, allowing for competency-based pay, pay-for-performance and other methods that can attract top talent both monetarily and in part-time capacities.

“While we are pretty well positioned now, it is a constant battle. It’s a little faster, it’s a little more flexible, the pay is a little more competitive and it allows for promotion and retention for employees who do achieve what they need to be achieving,” said Visalli.