CompTIA
The Public Technology Institute (PTI) along with CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce, have announced the winners of the 2022 PTI Solutions Awards.

Is your department receiving awards? Do you have a team or team member that you would like to recognize? Submit your information to the Communications Committee at info@tagitm.org so the TAGITM community can celebrate your success with you!

GovTech
Keeping up with the international threat of ransomware may take stronger cross-border public-private partnerships, improved reporting rules, a higher national cybersecurity baseline and cryptocurrency payment disruptions.

GovLoop
Government agencies have been on a technological journey to accommodate an expanding hybrid workforce.

How did we get here and where do we go from here?

Are these some of the questions you are getting from your staff, users, or organization? Simply put, we can’t answer those for every organization, but what we can do is provide the foundational groundwork to get to where you want to be. Do understand that this process will take time, patience, and a commitment to get there. With a thought-out plan and a community to lean upon, we will make sure you can successfully get to the destination of a CYBER WARRIOR.

What are we talking about…your cybersecurity posture of course!

So many of us have stepped into the role we are in and survey the horizon to find things not up to par. How do we fill in the gap and support the organization? Let’s start with the basics to break down the “elephant” to smaller bites so we can accomplish the goals and mission.

START WITH A STRONG FOUNDATION - No structure can stand if the foundation is weak or built on shaky ground.

• Find a framework that fits your organization to base all your development upon (NIST Cybersecurity, CIS Critical Security Controls, Texas Cybersecurity Framework)
• Understand the employees, processes, and technology for the organization to develop successful results
• Address your needs in a layered approach. Each layer is part of your defense in depth.
•  Provide education for users on the vulnerabilities
• Identify - Inventory of assets which includes hardware, software, equipment, and users.
• Protect – put the solutions in place to stop threats and lessen the risk
• Detect – monitoring without smothering in alerts
• Respond – plans to act upon any attacks so actions are easy to navigate
• Recover – collect lessons learned and update the plans to fill in the gaps
• Repeat – continue the process as cybersecurity is always changing.

Please take a moment to complete this cybersecurity resources survey: https://www.tagitm.org/surveys/?id=Cyber_Security_Resources

Thank you,
James O’Brien
TAGITM Cyber Security Chair

CIO
Ongoing data scientist shortages sees enterprises reconfiguring data teams, upskilling promising employees, and partnering to improve talent pipelines.

StateScoop
A law enacted earlier this month made Florida the second state to ban public-sector entities from paying ransomware demands. Lawmakers in at least four other states — Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — are considering bans of their own.