Contact: Kevin D. Pomfret
The National Governors Association (NGA), recently announced that 38 governors had signed “A Compact to Improve State Cybersecurity.” In announcing the Compact, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, outgoing chair of the NGA, cited its three core principles:
- Building cybersecurity governance
- Preparing and defending the state from cybersecurity events
- Growing the nation’s cybersecurity workforce
The Compact highlights the attention that states are paying to cybersecurity and includes several key recommendations for each of the three principles. As is to be expected, many of these recommendations are primarily governmental in nature. For example, one recommendation is to reclassify state job descriptions for cybersecurity positions to align with private sector practices. Another is to develop a public communications plan for cyber events.







