Here is Sae's excerpt, as published by ICCMA:
Hong Sae is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CIO) from Rutgers University. He has an extensive background as the CIO of Irving/Farmers Branch, Texas, and private-sector organizations. He has 30-plus years of experience in high-performing information technology and business leadership. His keys to success include exceptional customer service, creating innovative business solutions, leading strategic planning sessions, improving organizational maturity, managing risk and compliance, and most importantly working with wonderful supportive team members.
Cybersecurity has become one of the most important challenges we face as a nation, state, and local government. Within the past year, significant progress has been made, yet more sophisticated threats and attacks continue to rise each day. To continue and increase our defense mechanisms against highly sophisticated attacks, the government and private corporations will need to continue funding strategies to improve and raise the level of cybersecurity preparedness. It is key that local government, private businesses, and individuals continue to receive support to better protect themselves, the communities they serve, and the United States as a whole.
2018 TIP: Local government can best navigate the ever-changing cybersecurity environment with a regional and statewide collaborative approach. This can be done by prioritizing investment in the following:
People: Embrace “Security Is Everyone’s Business.” Smart Cities initiatives (Cloud, the Internet of Things, Mobile, Blockchain, 18 on 2018: Predictions of Local Government from 18 Experts, 17 Transportation, Social Intelligence), which connect every aspect of our lives, involve all security practices, demand us to raise the level of awareness and training, respond to cybersecurity situations as quickly as possible, and share the recovery efforts and lessons learned with others.
Process: Build and align your security practices to match standards such as those of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Address your security gaps by continuously assessing benchmark maturity levels and your peers annually. Immature capabilities may prohibit your agencies to protect and recover the most valuable assets — your infrastructure and data.
Technology: Many organizations struggle with too much data and not enough tools to protect it. Focus on security analytics and next-generation firewall and artificial intelligence programs to help detect and control cybersecurity incidents more effectively. Keep in mind: “No one is completely secured, but we can reduce the threat and minimize the impact.”
The senior technical specialist of ICCMA offered advice on harnessing data. Steven Bosacker of the Living Cities nonprofit, which assists large city governments better serve low-income residents through City Accelerator, Civic Tech and Data Collaborative projects, wrote about the organization's Equipt to Innovate framework, which offers multiple tools to improve governance, including data-driven decision-making.
More IT leaders' perspectives on 2018 can be read here.
