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Report: Government Organizations Rank Last in Cyber Security

Government organizations received the lowest security scores

A recent study analyzed cyber security risk among 18 major industries in the U.S. and discovered that government organizations lagged behind the rest, receiving the lowest security scores.

SecurityScorecard, a security firm that specializes in global threat intelligence and risk awareness, surveyed numerous major industries — Transportation, Retail, Healthcare — and found that none scored worse in cyber security measures than U.S. government organizations.

SecurityScorecard: Wide-ranging vulnerabilities

According to SecurityScorecard, the lowest performing government organizations had issues with three categories in particular: malware infections, network security, and software patching cadence.

Low-performing state organizations struggled badly in both software patching and network security. Among state organizations with an overall grade below a ‘B,’ 90 percent of scored an ‘F’ in software patching cadence, while 80 percent scored an ‘F’ in network security.

NASA: Not secure

Among all 600 U.S. government organizations, NASA received the worst grade, SecurityScorecard noted, while the U.S. Department of State, and IT systems of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Washington also made up the bottom tier of performers.

Cyber security is a growing concern

Cyber security incidents have been increasing in both frequency and severity in recent months. One [link url=”https://amuedge.com/u-s-government-sees-rise-in-cyber-attacks/” title=”recent report”] detailed how the U.S. government fought off more than 77,000 cyber incidents in 2015, and [link url=”https://amuedge.com/report-healthcare-gov-hit-with-more-than-300-cyber-attacks-in-less-than-two-years/” title=”another report“] detailed Healthcare.gov alone fought off more than 300 cyber incidents in about 18 months.

These events have not gone unnoticed. President Barack Obama recently [link url=”https://amuedge.com/u-s-extends-national-emergency-on-cyber-threats/” title=”extended the national emergency on cyber attacks”] that was originally declared in 2015, and, just last week, [link url=”https://amuedge.com/president-obama-names-members-of-cybersecurity-commission/” title=”officially named members“] who will make up the new Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

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