BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — While an all-digital landscape makes it easier for people to connect, it brings with it the increased risk of cyberattacks. The State of Idaho has agencies and procedures in place to help mitigate those threats, but with a lack of personnel and funding, challenges can arise.
That is why a program called Cyber Discovery was formed. This allows for military personnel, college students, and others with an interest in cybersecurity to participate in a scenario-based exercise to learn how best to defend against attacks by actually tackling threats head-on.
“In reality, you can’t simulate what the threat actors are doing, so the best way to train them is actually taking them and put them in the environment and having them fight the actual fights,” said Jerred Edgar, the chief information security officer at the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS).
Even though this program allows people to get involved in the cybersecurity effort, there are still challenges facing these agencies. Keeping up with technological infrastructure being paramount.
“I think it’s pertinent on everybody that we need to continue to strengthen our posture and continue to modernize our equipment and our policies and our tools in order to meet this threat,” said Chris Volmer, the critical infrastructure program manager at the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM).
Idaho is a big state with a lot of different communities that all have different needs.
“A big piece of the collaboration between IOEM and ITS is how do we protect those most vulnerable communities. The communities that might not have the budget or the person power or the technical expertise to defend their networks as efficiently as we defend the network in the State of Idaho,” Volmer said.
Both agencies expressed that if anyone wanted to get involved, they could find out more at cybersecurity.idaho.gov.
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