The State Treasurer's Office is recruiting a System Software Specialist II Tech to lead the department's day-to-day cybersecurity efforts.
Earlier this year, the office requested $303,000 from the general fund "to bolster our information security posture," said John McDonnell, manager of the Treasurer's Information Security Office, in a phone interview with Techwire.
Part of the money will be allocated toward the salary of the position, and the other portion would be to "complement our current program, especially in the areas of detection and monitoring," McDonnell said. More information and an application for the position is posted online.
The security upgrade plan includes advanced monitoring, tools to test applications developed in-house and vulnerability assessments.
"We're considering leveraging a service from the catalog which is from AT&T," McDonnell said.
The service, offered by the California Department of Technology, would offer a continuous monitoring subscription. CDT's catalog may also be used to identify an appropriate vulnerability assessment program.
"The better we are at detecting these threats, the better off we'll be. Every state agency needs to be better prepared when it comes to detecting and monitoring what's happening on their network," McDonnell said.
Qualis and FireEye have been considered for monitoring software, while PTP Consulting and Vericode have been considered for in-house application testing. The search for an in-house application testing program is in its early stages, according to McDonnell.
The office expects the vulnerability assessment and continuous monitoring to be updated in the next few months.
