Cash-Strapped States Burdened By Expensive Data Security Breaches

CowboyRobot writes "As budgets are pinched by reduced tax collection, many U.S. states are facing a possibility of not being able to handle the ever-increasing number of data breaches. 70% of state chief information security officers (CISOs) reported a data breach this year, each of which can cost up to $5M in some states. 'Cybersecurity accounts for about 1 to 2 percent of the overall IT budget in state agencies. ... 82 percent of the state CISOs point to phishing and pharming as the top threats to their agencies, a threat they say will continue in 2013, followed by social engineering, increasingly sophisticated malware threats, and mobile devices.' The full 2012 Deloitte-National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Cybersecurity Study is available online (PDF)."

Comments

Deloitte ? Don't make me laugh.

[vikingpower]

I grew suspicious on seeing the name "Deloitte" in the association's name. That is one more organisation preying on already cash-strapped government institutions, by sending in 25-years old with the roaring title as "consultants" for exorbitant fees. You always see where the corpses are by paying attention to where the vultures gather.

States exempt themselves from the rules

[roarkarchitect]

In Massachusetts businesses can be fined 1,000s of dollars for not having a written data breach plan, but the state is exempt from the rules. A few years back the unemployment office released personal information because of a virus installed on computers used by clients. There was no consequence for the state - and their response was - we can't do anything about it.