City Defends IT System from Social Network Threats

Interview with David Matthews, Deputy CISO, City of Seattle Eric Chabrow (GovInfoSecurity) • September 9, 2009

David Matthews, like other government information security officials, knows the security problems social networks present. And like his cohorts in municipal, state and federal governments across the nation, Matthews - deputy chief information security officer of the city of Seattle -has little choice but to support social networks, especially considering the city's top elected officials use them.

"The first thing we had to admit was that the horse is long gone out of the barn and there's really nothing we can do about it at this point," Matthews says in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com. "Users including council members, the mayor, everybody else are using social network, either personally or for city business. There are a few of them that have bothered to ask about what we thought about it on the security side of things, but the vast majority has just gone ahead and done it."

Social networks is one of the challenges Matthews discussed in this first of a two-part interview with Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com. In the first part, Matthews describes:

How a two-person IT security staff helps secure IT for the government of a city with a population that tops 600,000.

Innovative ways to meet tight budget demands by utilizing the skills of IT employees assigned to other functions and leveraging technology purchases.

Raising the consciousness of city employees regarding cybersecurity.

In the second part of the interview, which will be posted presently, Matthews discusses IT forensics and the IT security office relationship with the city's legal department.