A Tale of Two States: The 2026 Cybersecurity Paradox
A Tale of Two States: The 2026 Cybersecurity Paradox
Publish Date: 2026-05-03 05:08:00
Source Domain: www.govtech.com
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
This famous quote, from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and written in 1859, could well describe the state of government technology and cybersecurity in mid-2026. As I attended sessions and networked with state CIOs and CISOs over the past week, I saw that there is a wide gap in the level of hope between different state leaders.
From the opening Corporate Member Exchange Meeting to the State Meet and Greets session to coverage of the NASCIO-Deloitte Cybersecurity Study, everyone was talking about how state CISOs (and CIOs) are losing confidence in their ability to stop and recover from cyber attacks against their governments.
Here are some of my notes from meetings and conversations with CIOs and CISOs:
- Their governor’s support is high. But how do we measure cyber success? Lowered incident response from six days to 10 minutes. Fear of “double-bubble” — how can we eliminate the old tools? We don’t want to pay for tools twice.
- Some states, like Texas, have a well-funded new Cyber Command organization.
- Other states are seeing major budget cuts across the board. Not backfilling when people leave. Tightening belts. Must show cost savings. Hard savings needed.
- Leaders are hoping SLCGP Cyber Grants are renewed. Also discussions on next steps for the MS-ISAC, which I will cover in a late June blog.
- One state dealt with three ransomware attacks with locals in the past few months.
- All states are working on AI projects. Most are using an outcome-focused approach, looking for real downstream impact and asking how their AI projects work with improving or replacing existing systems. AI governance is top of mind for CIOs and CISOs.
- A lot of discussions about the recent developments with Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and Claude Mythos, along with other new AI…
