JEFFERSON CITY – The Office of Administration along with its Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) today announced that the Office of Cyber Security’s Cybersecurity Portal was honored with the “Innovation of the Year” award from StateScoop, the leading government IT media company. The award was presented on May 4, 2016 at the Annual StateScoop 50 Awards reception, which is hosted during the National Association of State Chief Information Officers Midyear Conference in Baltimore.
“As cyber threats become increasingly more frequent and potentially harmful we continue to focus our efforts to protect our state’s most valued networks and assets,” Office of Administration Commissioner Doug Nelson said. “Our Cybersecurity Portal allows us to share threat intel with our members from the public, private and educational sectors in a timely manner, thereby safeguarding our citizens’ data and information.”
The State of Missouri’s Cybersecurity Portal, built by the Office of Cyber Security (OCS), provides a platform to share threat intel that has been collected from inter-agency incidents and other sources. This allows the more than 200 portal members to receive threat intel in a timely manner and enables collaboration between OCS and its partners. The portal is innovative in the state government space, utilizes advanced technologies to populate its information, and has the goal of protecting citizens’ information by keeping the enterprise and partners updated about cyber threats, campaigns, malware and vulnerabilities.
The StateScoop 50 Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of the nation’s top 50 state IT and tech industry leaders. Each year StateScoop honors tech powerhouses making a positive impact in government and public service.
Last month, the Office of Administration was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a statewide cybersecurity preparedness initiative. The Office of Administration will use the grant funds to host a Cybersecurity Summit in 2016 and engage with stakeholders, including representatives of state and local governments; law enforcement; business; higher education; and K-12 institutions across the state. More information about the Cybersecurity Summit will be posted, when available, at cybersecurity.mo.gov.
In 2015, the Office of Administration’s Information Technology Services Division was honored with the “Overall Excellence in Cyber Security Award” at the FireEye Cyber Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. Missouri ITSD was chosen for being a model of cybersecurity awareness, infrastructure and practices.
In 2014, Missouri was one of only three states in the nation to receive an A grade from the Center for Digital Government in its annual Digital State Survey, which is conducted every two years to assess state governments’ ability to improve IT systems for better operational outcomes and services to citizens. Gov. Jay Nixon has consistently identified cybersecurity as a key priority in his annual budget recommendations and has also worked to generate additional investment and job creation from companies involved in information technology and cybersecurity.