Government as a driving force

Mrunmayee Honrao | July 13, 2022 | 1721 views | Read Time : 01:40 min

Government as article
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of constant innovation—as well as the need to respond quickly, agilely, and on a large scale.

During the early stages of the pandemic, governments increased mask production, facilitated data sharing among pharmaceutical companies, relaxed regulatory requirements for certain tests and drugs, and accelerated vaccine production. These were the critical first steps in what turned out to be a highly successful collaboration with the private sector, non-profit organizations, and research institutions.

Governments have served as catalysts throughout the pandemic, assembling and enabling multi-sector efforts to deal with the flood of cases and develop vaccines. Even before the pandemic, the government's role as a solution catalyst was expanding in scope and complexity, with a focus on how to harness innovation across sectors for public benefit.

Governments have gone beyond repairing market failures as commercial and cross-sector innovation has accelerated. Governments are fostering cross-sector solutions for a variety of societal challenges, including public health, climate change, and cybersecurity, in addition to assisting in the strengthening of strategic sectors such as defence and space.


Utilizing outside innovation to drive mission delivery

Many technologies have been developed by the commercial sector that can be used to address complex societal problems. Governments are looking into ways to use these capabilities to improve mission delivery in ways other than contracting, in order to develop a broader set of partners and solutions.

It is not always easy to implement such technologies in the public sector. Governments, unlike commercial entities with access to legal and financial structures such as joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions, must find more creative ways to capitalize on external innovation based on mutual interest and advantage across sectors.


Government action and innovation

State and local government leaders face shrinking resources, demanding constituents, complex policy environments, and constant pressure to deliver results on time.

Spotlight

Waukesha County

Waukesha County is located in southeastern Wisconin, directly west of Milwaukee and 100 miles northwest of Chicago. Waukesha County is part of the Milwaukee Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. The County covers 576 square miles and consists of 8 cities, 18 villages and 12 towns and has the third largest population in the state. 2008 estimated population is 382,697.

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Read More

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Businesswire | March 29, 2023

Trustwave Government Solutions (TGS), a Federally-focused cybersecurity provider and the wholly-owned subsidiary of Trustwave Holdings, Inc., today announced it has been awarded an expanded database security contract with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The expanded contract will allow USPTO to further build upon its robust Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) with the expansion of DbProtect’s purpose-built database vulnerability management, Rights Management for advanced user rights review and Threat Monitoring. “At USPTO, our mission to foster innovation through examination, granting high-quality patents and trademarks is crucial to American prosperity,” said Jamie Holcombe, Chief Information Officer of USPTO. “Part of our mission requires creating, deploying, and protecting the critical data in one of the world’s largest repositories of innovation which includes almost every conceivable creation for over the last 250 years. Our expanded contract with Trustwave Government Solutions is a key investment to ensure our mission is sustained in a secure way.” As the central repository for U.S. Patent and Trademark data, actively monitoring and protecting American innovation and intellectual property data is essential to USPTO’s mission. In response, USPTO has become a pioneer in building and operationalizing Zero Trust Architecture across the five pillars of the federal Zero Trust framework: users, apps, data, networks, and devices. By providing real-time visibility of database assets, vulnerabilities, risk levels, user privileges, and anomalies, TGS will help USPTO security teams deliver on two of the five zero-trust pillars: users and data. “USPTO is constantly at the forefront of Zero Trust Architecture innovation, and we’re thrilled to be a partner on this journey with them,” said Bill Rucker, President of Trustwave Government Solutions. “Data is at the heart of the Zero Trust conversation, and in order to operate securely today and in the future, databases need to be considered as critical assets with the appropriate security considerations applied. Gone are the days of ‘good enough’ scanning. Databases are just more important, and they should be protected at all costs.” TGS’s Database Security offering proactively assesses threats to databases to help government entities gain visibility into the vulnerabilities in on-premises or cloud databases that could lead to a data breach. It automates the security of critical data by uncovering vulnerabilities that threat actors could exploit, limiting user access to the most sensitive data, and alerting on suspicious activities, intrusions, and policy violations. As a result, government clients can spend less time chasing database security alerts and more time on activities that drive value, like remediating risks and reducing attack surfaces. Trustwave has been laser-focused on database security for more than 20 years and is currently protecting thousands of databases across the commercial and Federal Government spectrums. In fact, Trustwave’s DbProtect was the only database vulnerability scanner included in the original tools acquisition under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Continuous Diagnostic and Monitoring (CDM) program, and it is the only database security solution recognized by Marsh’s Cyber Catalyst program to have meaningful impact in reducing cyber risk by top global cyber insurers. As the threat landscape evolves and adversaries find new ways to exfiltrate and manipulate data, the government has been finalizing Zero Trust adoption guidance to adhere to the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order to “advance toward Zero Trust Architecture.” USPTO is setting the example for other government entities to employ a database-specific security approach that includes continuous vulnerability and configuration assessments and remediation, database privileged access visibility and control, and continuous database activity monitoring to alert and respond to anomalous database activity. About Trustwave As a recognized global cyber defender that stops cyber threats all day, every day – we enable organizations and governments to conduct their business securely. Trustwave detects threats that others can’t see, enabling us to respond quickly and protect our clients from the devastating impact of cyberattacks. We leverage our world-class team of security consultants, threat hunters and researchers, and our market-leading security operations platform to relentlessly identify and isolate threats with the right telemetry at the right time for the right response. Trustwave is a leader in managed detection and response (MDR), managed security services (MSS), consulting and professional services, database security, and email security. Our elite Trustwave SpiderLabs team provides award-winning threat research and intelligence, which is infused into Trustwave services and products to fortify cyber resilience in the age of advanced threats.

Read More

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Prnewswire | March 28, 2023

GovOS, a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for local governments, today announced a new partnership with the Idaho Association of Counties (IAC). IAC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan member organization dedicated to the improvement of county governments in Idaho. The organization supports county interest, good public policy, and community best practices through education and training for officials in all 44 Idaho counties. "Counties have a wide range of duties they are expected to fulfill, and having trusted vendors to help them carry out those responsibilities is vital to effectively serving their communities," said Seth Grigg, Executive Director, IAC. "We created IAC's Corporate Partner Program to help facilitate relationships between Idaho counties and great businesses like GovOS with exclusive partner pricing." Together, IAC and GovOS will provide counties with access to resources designed to improve the lives of residents and support local businesses in growing the economy sustainably. The partnership will also help members identify new ways to use digital services in ongoing efforts to serve communities effectively and efficiently. "This partnership allows us to support IAC's longstanding mission to serve Idaho counties while deepening our commitment to empowering local governments with dynamic technology solutions," said Anna Vaughn, Senior Vice President of Partners, GovOS. "Idaho counties will gain access to our strategic partner ecosystem that includes industry leaders in everything from short-term rental management and ordinance best practices to finance and community preservation tools to promote healthy and safe communities." IAC members have access to exclusive partner pricing for the following GovOS products through this partnership: Short-Term Rental Solution for identification, registration/permitting, lodging tax collection, and a 24/7 complaint hotline. Application Studio to transform paper forms quickly and easily into online services that reduce processing time. Business Licensing for automating agencies' unique workflows for business licensing processes. Tax Filing to turn both simple and complex paper-based tax collection into streamlined, paperless processes. Cloud Records for cloud-based records management that enables agencies to complete the land or vital records recording process online. Remote Marriage to provide constituents with a marriage licensing process that is fully remote, from application to certificate issuance. For the last 47 years, IAC has provided Idaho counties with a range of services to improve operations and foster better engagement between citizens and their local government. By partnering with GovOS, IAC is giving members access to new resources that support statewide efforts to lead digital government transformation. About GovOS GovOS is the leading digital transformation platform for local governments. Headquartered in Austin, TX, GovOS serves government agencies of all sizes across the United States. Through its secure and integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, governments can automate and streamline operations, provide seamless access to resources and information, and deliver cutting-edge digital services to businesses, residents, and agencies. About Idaho Association of Counties The Idaho Association of Counties (IAC), formed in 1976, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan member service organization dedicated to the improvement of county government. It was designed and incorporated by county elected officials to provide services, research, uniformity, and coordination among member counties, in order for the county elected officials to serve their constituents better.

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