Challenge:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) challenged the state of Virginia with helping to secure elections. A part of this challenge was making government localities cyber secure as well. FEMA offered a grant to help small localities achieve the level of security required.
Eleven government localities came to Assura for help meeting the cybersecurity policies and procedures requirements outlined by the State Board of Elections (ELECT). Because of how the ELECT functions, small localities in a region had to coordinate their efforts to receive the grant. For this reason, Assura was approached by nearly a dozen together needing to overcome the same challenge in the same timeframe, yet each with its unique path to reaching success.
Solution:
Assura’s Virtual Information Security Officer (VISO) to the rescue.
We enlisted two of our Virtual ISO™ teams to work hand-in-hand with each of the eleven localities. If policies and procedures were already in place, we helped bring them up to the proper framework, clarifying what was needed to meet those policy requirements. If there were no policies, we developed them for the locality and took them through the process. Because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, the Virtual ISO™ teams tailored each locality’s security policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines.
Results:
We successfully mapped out a fully functional and compliant program for each locality and built it together. As a result, the localities are now all in compliance with Virginia’s election security requirements ensuring the residents in these districts can continue to make their voices heard at the ballot box. Overcoming these security challenges wouldn’t have been possible for these small localities without our Virtual ISO™ expertise guiding the way.
Big picture:
Our Virtual ISO™ is a service that can benefit all organizations. Whether you have an IT staff and need Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance support, or if you need a complete cybersecurity and compliance solution, we have a plan for you.
Learn more about our Virtual ISO™ service.