State cyber organizations provide good ROI, UC Berkeley researchers find
State cyber organizations provide good ROI, UC Berkeley researchers find
https://statescoop.com/state-cybersecurity-organizations-roi-uc-berkeley/
Publish Date: 2026-05-05 08:01:00
Source Domain: statescoop.com
When attempting to pry funding from state coffers for new cybersecurity programs, officials most frequently resort to advertising a (perhaps well-justified) fear of being associated with the next big disruptive and expensive cyberattack. But one underappreciated strategy, said Grace Menna, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, is selling the financial upside to spending on cyber.
A guidebook published Tuesday catalogs Menna’s thoroughgoing project to compare the various state-led and community-led cybersecurity efforts that have grown more common in recent years, particularly under an administration that’s encouraged states to wean themselves off of federal support. One of the guidebook’s key findings is that cybersecurity programs are frequently sound investments: Regional security operations centers (found in Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Texas and South Carolina) generate between $1.1 million and $2.6 million in annual economic value, cyber clinics (found in more than half of the states) are worth up to $150,000 annually and state cyber corps (found in Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin) generate between $1.4 million and $7.5 million in economic value each year.
Menna, whose team spent six months researching and interviewing cybersecurity officials and volunteers from around the country, with the aim of compiling an authoritative “centralized resource” on state cyber programs, said “the ROI piece is really key to this equation.” She said “the idea is to get hard numbers in front of state legislators and governors and state policymakers that are having a hard time getting this across, essentially moving the conversation away from a risk conversation to a financial conversation.”
The new publication is timely. State chief information officers this year reported sinking levels of confidence in their ability to protect government data stores against AI-enhanced attacks,…
