[Air-L] our new book: Cybersecurity and Local Government

[Richard Forno]

Hello AoIRistas ---

I am pleased to announce that our book, 'Cybersecurity and Local Government' has been published by Wiley. Working with lead authors Don Norris (Professor Emeritus, Public Policy) and Laura Mateczun (PhD Student, Public Policy), it is the culmination of several years of interdisciplinary UMBC research exploring a real-world issue with significant national security implications.  (disclosure: Don and I are on Laura's PhD committee.)

We believe this is one of the first books, if not the first book, specifically focused on the state of cybersecurity at America's grassroots. Among other things, it reports out the findings of some groundbreaking surveys regarding American local government cybersecurity preparedness (or lack thereof) previously conducted with the support of the International City/County Management Association and other UMBC faculty. It also provides several (sadly, all-too-basic) recommendations on improving cybersecurity for over 90,000 local governments across the United States, and offers a look into some of the cybersecurity challenges they'll likely face in the future.

One of the most striking takeaways from this work is knowing that nearly one-third of America's local governments would be unable to tell if they're under active cyberattack or already compromised by one.  I think you'll agree this is more than a little unsettling on a good day in the modern era - and even moreso given recent and ongoing geopolitical events.

We hope these efforts will contribute meaningful data and informed analysis to the broader national cybersecurity discussion. Additional follow-on survey work and analysis is being planned....

-- rick

See also:

Cybersecurity and Local Government (2022) 256pp.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Cybersecurity+and+Local+Government-p-9781119788287

Local governments are attractive targets for hackers and are ill-prepared
https://theconversation.com/local-governments-are-attractive-targets-for-hackers-and-are-ill-prepared-179073


-- 
Dr. Richard Forno
Principal Lecturer, CSEE
Director, Graduate Cybersecurity Program
Assistant Director, UMBC Center for Cybersecurity