What To Know About the State & Local Cybersecurity Grant Program

The Federal government has been recently encouraging local and state governments and businesses to enhance their cybersecurity posture to combat the persistent threat landscape. One such program, which was written into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and for which $1 billion has been allocated through 2025, is the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLGCP).

What is the SLCGP?

According to a recent report, nearly 50% of all targeted phishing attacks were directed at government employees. The data held by government agencies at state, local, and federal levels is thorough and deep, accounting for almost every individual in the jurisdiction. For threat actors, this means increased negotiation leverage and a larger financial payoff. Given the enormity of the threats facing public agencies, incentives were increased to bring stronger, more mature security postures to critical government infrastructure.  In 2021 alone, at least 2,300 government entities were hit by cyberattacks, accounting for 2^nd in most targeted industries.

The Grant provides eligible state and local governments with funding to expedite upgrades to their cybersecurity posture, including but not limited to the following:

1. Implement multi-factor authentication
2. Implement enhanced logging
3. Data encryption for data at rest and in transit
4. End use of unsupported/end-of-life software and hardware that are accessible from the Internet
5. Prohibit the use of known/fixed/default passwords and credentials
6. Ensure the ability to reconstitute systems (backups)
7. Migration to the .gov internet domain

How SpearTip Can Help

The mission at SpearTip is to provide cybersecurity services that allow our partners to fulfill their own missions. We do this with our three-pillar approach addressing every incident aspect.
Pre-Incident: Our team offers a comprehensive catalog of proactive services tailored to meet the needs of any business. Our services extend beyond the standard audit or compliance check as we ensure optimal protection against all cyber threats. Our services cover four categories: Advisory, Implementation, Training, and Service-Based.
 Active Incident Prevention: The ShadowSpear Platform is a fully managed, integrable cybersecurity solution powered by our 24/7/365 Security Operations Center (SOC). Through ShadowSpear, our team can quickly detect threats against a monitored environment, eliminate those threats immediately with pre-execution blocking techniques and advanced XDR visibility, and respond to active threats with real-time human response.
Post Incident: In the event of a data breach, our Rapid Incident Response team is prepared to secure your environment within minutes, identify and isolate the threat, and remediate the issues that allowed the incident to occur in the first place.
SpearTip’s operational capabilities mean that any business or state and local government entity will immediately strengthen its cybersecurity posture by adding our service offerings. Whatever stage of the SLCGP application and implementation process you are currently navigating, SpearTip can assist.
For more information on the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, contact the SpearTip team to discuss how we can help enhance your cybersecurity.
If your company is experiencing a breach, call our Security Operations Center at 833.997.7327 to speak directly with an engineer.