Nebraska’s joint security operations center is filling gaps left by federal cuts

After ten months of operation, Nebraska’s joint security operations center is proving an essential piece of the state’s cybersecurity service offerings, particularly as federal funds dry up, state Chief Information Officer Matthew McCarville said in a recent interview.

“With these things expiring, we’re seeing a lot of questions come back to us at central state IT that have never come in before,” he said.

With the $1 billion promised by the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program in jeopardy and COVID-era funding for technology dwindling, Nebraska’s JSOC is filling a widespread need across the state. McCarville said the center, which coordinates IT security efforts across various levels of government and provides resources, is especially helpful for educational institutions and municipal agencies with smaller budgets.

“Outside of [major metropolitan] areas, it’s all small towns,” he said. “You get a city manager that’s got five jobs, and they’re part time also working somewhere else. Or they’re a farmer and they’re doing this on the side. They just don’t have the budget or the resources or the revenue or the taxes to generate… I mean cybersecurity is one of the most expensive things we can do outside of AI right now.”

In addition to providing software licenses at bulk discount pricing and access to cybersecurity analysts, Nebraska’s JSOC is also assisting with the process of granting security clearances. McCarville said bringing workers in proximity to state government also helps create a talent pipeline.

For the fourth straight year this legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers tried and failed to pass legislation that would have provided $10 million in funding to improve cybersecurity at the state’s school systems. McCarville said the state’s budget deficit made finding such funding unlikely from the start. And yet, “there’s a need,” he said.

The federal government is not expected to be especially helpful with states’ cybersecurity efforts over the next several years. A budget proposal President Donald Trump unveiled last week would eliminate more than 1,000 positions from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the future of the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, meanwhile, remains foggy.

This is despite the grant program, which is jointly administered by the DHS’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and CISA, receiving positive reviews from state IT officials seeking any mechanism to assist their local governments. A Government Accountability Office report published last April showed that as of last Aug. 1, the grant program had funded 839 projects, covering a wide range of security needs, representing $172 million provided to 33 states and territories.

Several chief information officers have credited the program with spurring helpful reorganizations of their cybersecurity strategies, and leading to improved relationships with their local governments.

“A lot of the counties don’t have the capability staff wise or skill wise to do their own cybersecurity,” McCarville said.