Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Public Technology Institute (PTI), part of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), today released the results of its annual cybersecurity survey of city and county government technology leaders from around the nation at the group’s Cyber Leader Summit.

PTI, which has been conducting the survey for the last six years, interviewed 75 professionals who work for local governments of all sizes as part of the 2021 National Survey of Local Government Cybersecurity Programs and Cloud Initiatives.

“Cybersecurity is critical to all organizations and especially to local governments,” said Dr. Alan Shark, Executive Director of PTI. “The results of this year’s survey show that local technology leaders continue to struggle with budgets and with bringing more local officials into the decision-making process when it comes to cybersecurity programs.”

Some of the more significant results from this year’s survey include:

Slightly more than half (52%) said their elected officials are only somewhat engaged and familiar with a jurisdiction’s cybersecurity efforts.

Only 4% of local tech leaders said their cybersecurity budgets had decreased this year compared to last year with the lion’s share (96%) saying budgets increased or stayed the same. The majority (58%) of local tech leaders said their cybersecurity budget is not adequate to support security and cloud initiatives.

Most (69%) leaders said their jurisdictions are paying more in insurance premiums this year compared to previous years.

Thirty-one percent of tech executives are planning substantial cloud computing
implementations in the next 12 months, while 27% of respondents said they are already
using cloud computing services.

The 2021 National Survey of Local Government Cybersecurity Programs and Cloud Initiatives is available for download here.