Craig Orgeron is the executive director of the state’s technology department. He plays a key role in establishing a vision for how state agencies will use technology and helping them find technology solutions that benefit the people of Mississippi. In the May 2017 issue of The Public Manager, he talks about how technology is transforming the way the state works to serve its citizens.

Among other issues, TPM asked Orgeron about the role of cybersecurity, specifically the role training plays in moving agencies forward? What’s at risk, and how can we best prevent cybersecurity attacks? Here’s what he had to say.

Cyber is certainly one of the things that needs close attention. We have learned over time that end users are and continue to be a favorite target of threat actors who wish to gain a foothold into an organization and execute a breach.

To that end, organizations have to be committed to putting in the time and energy to create what we like to call a culture of cybersecurity. The challenge is not easy, and it’s not something that you can do once and check the compliance box. Creating a culture requires every employee in the organization to understand that it’s a shared responsibility.

Cybersecurity training needs to focus on how to improve awareness, set expectations, and change the behaviors of end users who will need to stave off threats. Training also has to be at regular intervals throughout the year. And honestly, learning experiences should be interactive and engaging or folks simply won’t participate.

In addition to traditional training activities, we’ve used social engineering training that sends phishing emails to employees as a way to train. Different folks in an organization have different roles, so role tailoring can be effective. Finally, capturing metrics and measuring progress of the training program play a key role in training success. Those would be some things on the list that we certainly advocate and do ourselves.

For more on how Mississippi is using technology to serve citizens, be sure to check out the full interview with Craig Orgeron in the May 2017 issue of The Public Manager.