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National Governors Association launches state cyber policy academy

Five states are slated to participate in the workshop, which aims to help officials develop and implement comprehensive cybersecurity strategies.

Five states plan to participate in a new cybersecurity policy academy sponsored by the National Governors Association.

The workshop aims to help officials update their state policies so they meet rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats, the group announced Thursday. Sessions will be run by the organization’s staff and private sector partners as well as Govs. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Rick Snyder of Michigan, who also lead the NGA’s working group on cyber — the Resource Center for State Cybersecurity. 

For the workshop, representatives from Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada and Oregon will work together to tackle specific cybersecurity policy and strategy challenges. NGA holds other academies that cover various topics throughout the year.

McAuliffe, who also serves as co-chairman of the NGA, said the academy will help states improve their cybersecurity posture and prepare for looming cyberthreats.

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In Virginia, McAuliffe has made cybersecurity one of the defining issues of his administration. The state was the first to launch a statewide information sharing and analysis organization. McAuliffe also created a cybersecurity commission to assist in the development of policies and to help prosecute cybercrime.

“Threats to cybersecurity remain one of the most significant homeland security challenges facing the nation,” McAuliffe said in the release. “This opportunity [through NGA] will allow states to learn effective cybersecurity practices to better safeguard citizens.”

Contact the reporter who wrote this story at jake.williams@statescoop.com and follow him on Twitter @JakeWilliamsDC.

Jake Williams

Written by Jake Williams

Jake Williams is a Staff Reporter for FedScoop and StateScoop. At StateScoop, he covers the information technology issues and events at state and local governments across the nation. In the past, he has covered the United States Postal Service, the White House, Congress, cabinet-level departments and emerging technologies in the unmanned aircraft systems field for FedScoop. Before FedScoop, Jake was a contributing writer for Campaigns & Elections magazine. He has had work published in the Huffington Post and several regional newspapers and websites in Pennsylvania. A northeastern Pennsylvania native, Jake graduated magna cum laude from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, or IUP, in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in political science. At IUP, Jake was the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Penn, and the president of the university chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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