State CIOs Refocus After 9/11

In response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., conferences and events nationwide were canceled or postponed. One of the gatherings that fell by the wayside was the annual meeting of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), originally scheduled for Sept. 16 to 19. The agenda had included selecting new leadership for the coming year and presenting NASCIO’s annual awards for IT excellence. The election and presentation occurred online at www.nascio.org. The membership elected Rock Regan, CIO for the state of Connecticut, to be president of the association for 2001 to 2002. He took office Oct. 10.

NASCIO examines the critical role of state information systems security within the nation’s infrastructure, and will now add emphasis to how state CIOs can play a role in averting or responding to disasters. “We will work with security and architecture experts to develop an interstate information sharing center, as well as early warning and response resources,” says Aldona Valicenti, former president of NASCIO and Kentucky’s CIO. “These are among the most important things that we, as state CIOs, can do to ensure America’s national security.”

NASCIO had already been working closely with the National Governor’s Association (www.nga.org) and the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security (www.pcis/forum.org) on creating and advocating security policies and protocols for state IT systems, and will step up that effort, Valicenti says. The organization also sponsored a forum in November for state CIOs and security officers to discuss state information systems in the context of critical infrastructure protection.