Missouri auditor says government entities need to improve cyber security
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new report released by Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick emphasized the need for the state to take cyber threats seriously and teach employees how to protect resources.
The report comes just weeks after the Kansas City Scout cyber attack, a Jackson County ransomware attack and other Kansas City outages.
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The audit looked at awareness and training efforts for 34 state government entities that are identified in the report but are not specifically named. The offices include over 50,000 state employees, found a need for improved oversight of awareness training efforts and the need to implement effective training and phishing testing for others.
“With tens of thousands of our state employees using computers with internet access on a daily basis, it is extremely important for the state to make effective security awareness training a key component of its culture,” said Fitzpatrick.
“Our audit report makes recommendations that can help the state take additional steps to ensure state employees are trained appropriately and armed with the knowledge they need to avoid scams and phishing attempts.”
Fitzpatrick said the state has already started working to put the steps into place.
The report found approximately 20% of employees did not complete any security awareness training during the test period, even though the Office of Administration Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) requires all employees who use state-owned systems to complete monthly security awareness training.
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According to a news release, the lack of training was not detected because ITSD does not require anyone to monitor the completion of security awareness training.
The report recommends that ITSD update its security awareness training policy to require oversight procedures to ensure employees are completing their training.
ITSD has agreed with the recommendation and is working to implement the changes.
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