Rick Driggers, deputy assistant director for cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity and infrastructure agency, said state and local governments should establish information sharing functions with federal cybersecurity agencies, FedScoop reported Thursday.
Driggers said at FedScoop’s FedTalks event the government does not have sufficient visibility on potential threats that may affect the local level. He also noted that local and state governments are being targeted by hackers backed by foreign entities.
“We’ve seen in the last couple years more focused attention from nation-state adversaries, particularly with ransomware to attack or cause disruption at the state and local level,†said Driggers. “At the end of the day, the state and local governments provide a lot of very valuable critical services to their populations. Those services going down causes a lot of disruption,” Driggers added.