Top CIO Priorities Nationwide

Each year, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) conducts a survey of the various state CIOs to compile the top technological priorities and issues facing state governments. Hawaii’s own priorities are in alignment, and the Office of Information Management & Technology (OIMT) and Information & Communication Services Division (ICSD), together with departments and agencies across the state, have achieved measurable progress in many of these priority areas, including the No. 1 issue:  Security.

SOCTremendous advancements have been made over the last year to improve Hawaii’s cyber-security posture and ensure protection of valuable information and
data assets:

  • Established the state’s first Security Operations Center (SOC), which conducts continuous monitoring and response to cyber threats to departments and agencies. The state also aligned its cyber security approach with the National Cyber Security Framework.
  • Implemented an enterprise-wide Incident Response (IR) program with numerous critical components necessary to properly respond to all natural hazard and cyber threats. This initiative has placed processes, procedures, reporting, and a highly structured workflow around this essential function. As IR is the first line of response to a cyber threat, adopting a proven and organized approach is critical.
  • Formed a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Hygiene program, which provides network vulnerability scanning of external-facing public IP addresses to help the state understand how it appears to attackers on the Internet.
  • Procured a four-part cyber assessment conducted over a three-month performance period to identify known and prioritized security and privacy threats, preliminarily assess Hawaii’s preparedness against threats, and develop a roadmap to address any gaps identified in the assessment. To do so, OIMT and ICSD implemented software providing the state this new capability.
  • Deployed additional security tools to increase protection against network-based threats.

Read more about top priorities nationwide, ranging from Security to Cloud Services to Consolidation/Optimization, in the Jan. 7, 2015, issue of OIMT News.