State CIOs call for federal collaboration on cyber security

Members of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers urged more federal collaboration on cyber security issues during the Kentucky-based organization's midyear conference.

At the organization's 2014 “Fly-In,” in which more than 50 state chief information officers and state technology policy officials participated Wednesday, members discussed the need for state and federal authorities to continue to mature collaborative efforts to defend public networks against hackers and other cyber threats, among other issues, the association said in a statement.

Those who spoke to the attendees included Roberta Stempfley, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and Matthew Scholl, acting chief of the computer security division of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute for Standards and Technology.

Craig Orgeron, NASCIO president and Mississippi chief information officer and executive director, said in a statement that the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Standards and Technology “have been excellent partners in the development of the cyber security framework. Now comes the hard work: ensuring it is used to promote enterprise approaches to cyber security in the states rather than as a checklist for compliance.”

In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice's J. Patrick McCreary, associate deputy director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, announced a partnership between NASCIO and the agency on cyber security disruption response planning and cyber threat analytics.