States juggle cyberthreats, aging IT, budget concerns

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing new challenges to state and local government IT shops, from the heightened risk of cyberattacks, scams or data mismanagement to the elevated scrutiny facing chief information officers responsible for keeping unemployment benefits systems operating and their employees working remotely.

In Scoop News Group’s weekly video wrap-up on Friday, StateScoop’s Jake Williams joins CyberScoop’s Greg Otto and FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell, who highlight the technology trends they’re seeing across government and the private sector.

In state government, the challenge now centers on what will happen in the near future as governors evaluate when to begin reopening parts of their economies.

“When that return to normalcy comes [CIOs will] have some pretty big challenges coming their way. One of the biggest ones is going to be budgetary,” Williams said. “There’s a pretty widespread consensus that there will be some economic impacts as we emerge from these lockdown shelter-in-place conditions.”