State and Local Government Cybersecurity
Protecting Digital Assets and Critical Infrastructure Against Growing Advanced Threats
Fortinet Grants Support ProgramOverview
Although an increasingly consolidated news media focuses much of its attention on the activities of the federal government, state and local governments are responsible for a variety of services that impact the everyday lives of every resident. Critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, water and sewage systems, and public transportation are operated by state and local entities. Elections—even for federal offices—are administrated locally. Driver’s licenses and other forms of identification are issued by the state government. And a vast majority of law enforcement personnel are employees of state and local entities.
This broad array of service offerings makes state and local governments attractive to a variety of cyber criminals. Critical infrastructure is attractive to nation-state actors looking to create chaos and sow discord. The fact that personal information from every resident can be found in state databases is of interest to cyber criminals seeking to sell that information on the dark web. Hackers can shut down the IT systems of local governments in order to extract ransoms from desperate entities. And hacktivists can wreak havoc with state and local government IT systems to make a political point.
Entities funded by taxpayers almost always operate on limited budgets, and many use some legacy technologies as a result. But many state and local governments have embraced digital technology to provide better service—and more transparency—to their citizens. As a result, innovative models of shared services between governments, innovation labs, and new approaches to Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enhanced public service are now on the agenda. These advancements promise to improve customer service, public engagement, and community cohesiveness. But they also expand the attack surface.
Secure Access
Contractors and other third parties often have access to government-owned systems, and this introduces significant risk to state and local governments. As a result, ensuring that each login is authorized is a key priority. But simply requiring a username and password is not enough. Threat actors often gain their initial access to a network using stolen credentials from a third party.
To provide secure access in a world where trust is not static, a multilayered approach is necessary. Multi-factor authentication provides a much more secure way for authorized users to access network resources. But additional layers of verification must be applied to both users and devices trying to access network resources. And the network must be intelligently segmented to restrict each portion of the network to those who need to see it.
Fortinet provides these levels of verification as a part of an integrated security architecture. Identity and access management tools provide multiple checks for users, and network access control keeps track of devices that try to access network resources. User and entity behavior analytics technology watches for anomalies in behavior that might indicate compromised user accounts or devices. Presence analytics technology pinpoints where wireless devices were located when access was requested, and deception technology lures adversaries into revealing themselves. Intent-based segmentation segments the network according to evolving business needs, ensuring that users have access only to what they need to do their job.
Solution Guides
Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments Securing Democracy: Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Protecting Public Safety and First Responder Systems
Blogs
How to Defeat the Latest State and Local Government Cybercrime Trends Key Cyber Trends Impacting State and Local Government and Education Securing the Modernization of IT for State and Local Governments Gartner Peer Insights for Enterprise Firewalls: See What Government Leaders are Saying About Fortinet
Security Operations
Growing numbers of state and local governments want to build an in-house security operations center (SOC) to manage threat detection, analysis, and response—while also providing actionable insights about the best strategies for keeping the network secure going forward. As a further development of this trend, some state governments provide security operations as a shared service to individual state agencies and local government entities.
For the SOC to deliver value in terms of enhanced security and cost-effectiveness, these services must be powered by an integrated security architecture with broad protection, centralized visibility and control, and the ability to automate reporting and threat detection and response. For entities acting as a service provider to other agencies or governments, ensuring that the infrastructure is designed for multi-tenant use is crucial.
The Fortinet Security Fabric provides an end-to-end, integrated security architecture that supports comprehensive SOC operations for entities using the in-house or service provider models. FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) provide the foundation for this comprehensive architecture, and threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs provides real-time insight into new threats so that response can be timely, and security services like Advanced Malware Protection, antivirus, and web filtering can be accessed through several subscription bundles. Management and analytics tools provide centralized visibility, control, and reporting on the overall security posture of each entity being served.
Solution Guides
Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments Securing Democracy: Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Protecting Public Safety and First Responder Systems
Blogs
How to Defeat the Latest State and Local Government Cybercrime Trends Financial, Healthcare, Government, and Retail IT Professionals Review Fortinet’s Enterprise Firewall Solution Key Cyber Trends Impacting State and Local Government and Education Together, Fortinet and AWS Secure the Government Securing the Modernization of IT for State and Local Governments Gartner Peer Insights for Enterprise Firewalls: See What Government Leaders are Saying About Fortinet
Integration of Voice, Cyber, and Physical Security
State and local governments maintain thousands of miles of water mains, sewage systems, roadways, public transportation lines, and other critical infrastructure—many of which are controlled and monitored with Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. These connected sensors and cameras geographically extend a government’s IT infrastructure—and its attack surface. Like other critical infrastructure, these systems can be the target of cyber criminals and nation-state actors whose goal is operational disruption, economic losses for the community, or even loss of life.
Such infrastructure can also be subject to coordinated cyber/physical attacks. As a result, protecting it involves an integrated approach to both cyber and physical security. Such integration will become increasingly important as emerging facial recognition and weapons detection technology come online. Adding voice communications to the integrated architecture improves operational efficiency and enhances security.
The Fortinet Security Fabric enables state and local governments to integrate cybersecurity, physical security, wireless networking, and voice communications infrastructures for comprehensive protection. Cameras, recorders, IP phones, voice systems, and wireless networking are all a part of the Fortinet Security Fabric. Analytics tools can provide reporting and analysis on this entire infrastructure, supplemented by presence analytics technology to identify where Wi-Fi users accessed the network. And network access control monitors and verifies all these devices to protect the network.
Solution Guides
Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments Securing Democracy: Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Protecting Public Safety and First Responder Systems
Secure Remote Sites
Even smaller local governments have multiple locations from which different kinds of services are delivered, and larger ones have hundreds or thousands of assorted facilities. Providing connections between these branches and the main IT infrastructure has historically required expensive multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) infrastructure that was difficult to scale according to fluctuations in traffic, and the increasing use of cloud-based services often results in latency.
In response to these problems, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) technology has moved into the mainstream in the past few years. SD-WAN enables network traffic to travel on the public internet. To keep such a network secure, the SD-WAN technology should ideally be integrated with the cybersecurity infrastructure—and with the networking infrastructure at the remote location.
FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) include highly secure SD-WAN technology, allowing network traffic to travel not only on the public internet but also over a virtual WAN (vWAN) within select public clouds. At the remote location, Fortinet SD-Branch solutions extend the Fortinet Security Fabric to the access layer at each branch. This enables secure networking at branches—regardless of their size—and consistent security coverage from the internet, to the wireless network, to the switching infrastructure.
Solution Guides
Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments
Advanced Threat Protection
State and local governments are under constant threat from attacks that are increasing in volume, velocity, and sophistication. The days when threat response could be done manually during business hours are gone. State and local governments need access to robust, real-time threat intelligence with automated response policies to combat unknown, including zero-day threats, and targeted attacks.
The professionals at FortiGuard Labs collect threat intelligence from a large global network of sensors, and have maintained an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-evolving detection system (SEDS) for nearly eight years. For all these years, the SEDS has refined its algorithms using machine learning (ML), resulting in extremely accurate, real-time identification of unknown threats across the entire Security Fabric. Sandbox analysis and browser isolation tools provide additional layers of protection. And the Fortinet Advanced Malware Protection service provides broad protection against malware-based attacks.
White Papers
Solution Guides
Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments Securing Democracy: Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Protecting Public Safety and First Responder Systems
Blogs
How to Defeat the Latest State and Local Government Cybercrime Trends Financial, Healthcare, Government, and Retail IT Professionals Review Fortinet’s Enterprise Firewall Solution Key Cyber Trends Impacting State and Local Government and Education Securing the Modernization of IT for State and Local Governments
Digital Government
State government networks host extremely sensitive data, and that data is increasingly distributed across public and hybrid cloud environments. Many entities also host myriad Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices at a vast number of locations and have dozens of citizen-centric applications. As entities adopt more and more services across this distributed architecture, the default is to use the built-in cybersecurity tools offered by each public cloud provider. However, these solutions do not communicate with each other. The result is multiple silos in the security architecture, necessitating a lot of manual work on the part of busy cybersecurity team members in reporting and threat response.
As state and local government networks get more complex and the threat landscape becomes more advanced, it is increasingly important to simplify the security architecture by achieving integration and consistent policy management across the infrastructure.
Fortinet Adaptive Cloud Security solutions, part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, deliver this integration by providing a single-pane-of-glass view of the entire cloud infrastructure. They feature native integration with all major public cloud providers, broad protection to cover all elements of the attack surface, and management and automation features that enable consistent, timely threat detection and response through automation.
Solution Guides
Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments Securing Democracy: Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Protecting Public Safety and First Responder Systems
Blogs
How to Defeat the Latest State and Local Government Cybercrime Trends Financial, Healthcare, Government, and Retail IT Professionals Review Fortinet’s Enterprise Firewall Solution Key Cyber Trends Impacting State and Local Government and Education Together, Fortinet and AWS Secure the Government Securing the Modernization of IT for State and Local Governments Gartner Peer Insights for Enterprise Firewalls: See What Government Leaders are Saying About Fortinet
Key State and Local Government Cybersecurity Challenges
Cost Optimization
State and local governments operate on limited budgets, and citizens are usually skeptical about proposed increases in spending. This sometimes results in reluctance on the part of elected officials to support major projects, not wanting to incur the wrath of voters. As a result, IT staff must be strategic about budget and resource allocation, with risks prioritized according to the potential impact on citizens and institutions. As the volume and velocity of attacks increase, state and local governments often do not have the option of adding headcount to address the issue. And even if new positions are approved, the cybersecurity skills shortage means that filling them will be very expensive.
Targeted Threats
State and local governments have recently been heavily targeted with threats like ransomware. While some entities have refused to pay the ransom, others have no choice but to pay up. As a result, adversaries will target them in this way for the foreseeable future. Smaller entities often lack both the budget and the expertise to fight back, and larger governments might face extremely high remediation costs if they choose not to pay the ransom.
Digital Government Transformation
Many state and local governments are implementing digital transformation (DX) strategies, notably migration of some or all services to the cloud and deployment of IoT devices such as sensors across critical infrastructure. However, these projects have slowed in the past year, and entities indicate that their migration strategies have proven more complicated, costly, and time-consuming than initially expected. Further, they need help with proper selection of service and deployment models and scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities provided as a service. IoT devices often lack adequate built-in security, and a fragmented security architecture can hamper efforts to harden them against attack.
Integration of Security Architecture
As the attack surface expands for a state or local government, cybersecurity teams scramble to fill coverage gaps with point products. Over time, this results in a highly siloed security architecture filled with solutions that do not integrate or communicate with each other. This architectural fragmentation results in decreased visibility, delayed threat response, and operational inefficiencies. It also creates cost inefficiencies due to siloed, overlapping software and hardware license costs.
Compliance Reporting
Governments are accountable to the public, and compliance information is often a matter of public record. They must achieve and report compliance with regulations about the handling of personal information, protection of critical infrastructure, and environmental standards. Audits are frequent enough that redeploying staff to manual audit preparation each time will significantly slow the strategic initiatives they are working on with the remainder of their time.
Fortinet Differentiators for State and Local Government Cybersecurity
Integrated Platform
Fortinet delivers a flexible platform for building an end-to-end, integrated security architecture. This integration can span from a state or local government’s critical infrastructure to its public services, from the data center to the endpoint to multiple clouds, and from physical security to voice communications to cybersecurity. It includes an open application programming interface (API) and Fabric Connectors to integrate third-party security tools.
Remote Location Networking and Security
Fortinet offers a comprehensive software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN), networking, and cybersecurity infrastructure for branch locations and field sites that provides optimal security and improves network performance. Network traffic can securely travel over the public internet, helping state and local governments avoid the high cost of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) connections.
Insider Threat Protection
Governments face especially high risk from third parties and insiders who perpetrate accidental and deliberate attacks. Fortinet delivers a comprehensive solution to guard against these threats with identity and access management tools supplemented by network access control, intent-based segmentation, deception technology, and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).
Robust Threat Intelligence
FortiGuard Labs delivers comprehensive intelligence from a large global network of next-generation firewalls, sandboxes, and an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-evolving detection system (SEDS) that has refined its algorithms using machine learning (ML) training for nearly eight years. The result: extremely accurate detection of new threats with almost no false positives.
Industry Leadership
Fortinet is recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls. The company has also achieved nine “Recommended” ratings from NSS Labs and achieved the best score in its NGFW Security Value Map.
Solution Guides
Protecting NextGen 911 Systems with the Fortinet Security Fabric Making Smart Use of One-Time Cybersecurity Funding: Tactics for Sustainability and Ongoing Success Free Network and Endpoint Assessment and Report Why Hardware-as-a-Service from Fortinet Makes Sense for State and Local Governments Cyber Threat Assessment for State and Local Governments Securing Democracy: Supporting Integrated and Effective Election Security with the Fortinet Security Fabric Securing Counties and Cities: Fortinet’s Security Solutions for Local Governments
Blogs
How to Defeat the Latest State and Local Government Cybercrime Trends Financial, Healthcare, Government, and Retail IT Professionals Review Fortinet’s Enterprise Firewall Solution Key Cyber Trends Impacting State and Local Government and Education Together, Fortinet and AWS Secure the Government Securing the Modernization of IT for State and Local Governments Gartner Peer Insights for Enterprise Firewalls: See What Government Leaders are Saying About Fortinet
