REPORT: SECURITY AMONG TOP PRIORITIES, CHALLENGES FOR FEDERAL CIOs

4 June 2014
TR Daily


A new survey compiled by TechAmerica based on interviews with federal government agency chief
information officers and chief information security officers shows that cybersecurity is among both the top
three priorities and the top three challenges for federal CIOs and CISOs.

In addition to cybersecurity as a top priority, the 24th annual edition of the report from TechAmerica finds
that other top federal agency CIO/CISO priorities including modernizing and transforming agency IT
operations, migrating operations to cloud-based services, and increasing use of mobile services
Among the challenges faced by the federal agency CIOs and CISOs, in addition to improving cyber
security, are workforce management and budget issues, the report says.

On the cybersecurity front, the survey found that most federal agencies were able to use the Federal Risk
and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) to reduce the risk of moving operations to cloud-
based services, and that agencies increasingly are moving to adopt continuous network monitoring
technologies to improve security.

The survey found that two-thirds of respondents said that cyber threats to their organizations had
increased by more than 10% in the past year, and noted 15% of current federal agency IT budgets are
devoted to cybersecurity. CIOs are supportive of the growth in cyber spending, but feel an increase will
be needed in the coming years, the survey says. John Curran, john.curran@wolterskluwer.com