Virginia's information security awarness training

HEADNOTE

STATE OF VIRGINIA

Everyone agrees that training government employees to be security conscious is a good idea, but did you ever stop to think how much it costs? Jim Adams found out.

The director of

security for the Virginia Department of Information Technology searched for a program to train thousands of state employees on cybersecurity awareness, and discovered it would cost upwards of $100 per employee each year. In the face of a $5 billion deficit, that kind of spending would have been impossible.

Refusing to give up, the state worked out a deal with online training organizations and established an automated, customized program that costs only $2.50 per employee to operate.

The Web-based training is already is in use by almost 200 employees in Adams' department. In two to three sessions, employees learn about hacker threats, virus protection, e-mail use and computer access management.

-Alan Paller, SANS Institute

WHY IT WON

Found an inexpensive way to provide critical education.

WHY IT'S INNOVATIVE

Program was partly home-grown and costs less than cleaning up a cyber attack.

WHAT IT CHANGED

Employees are learning how to protect the systems they work on every day.