CITY OF PORTLAND
technology responsibly to support a healthy , safe , more affordable , and prosperous Portland .
“ It is a collaborative effort , and we are doing our part in learning from other cities who are also pioneers in Smart Cities initiatives . It is exciting to explore new and innovative ways to offer services . It ' s a great mission to participate in ,” comments Paidhrin .
Protecting the city and its data With all these data-driven initiatives comes a significant need for the city to bolster its cyber defences . As the city collects and analyses an increasing volume of data , Paidhrin and his team need to ensure that this data is protected from threat and damage .
If left vulnerable , the city could face unknown challenges that would hinder its Smart City roadmap .
“ Through due diligence , constant threat monitoring and following best practices , we strive to prevent cyberattacks . Central to our cyber program is to follow a federal cyber framework — in use by cities , counties and states across the U . S . – called the Cyber Security Framework ( CSF ) from the National Institute of Standards and Technologies ( NIST ),” explains Paidhrin .
“ The NIST CSF framework consists of five functions and 20 categories . It helps us to effectively segment the complexity of cybersecurity into manageable work categories . The framework provides an ordered grouping and a life cycle perspective on data security and the use and protection of information . And by having our programme follow this framework , we can identify where we need additional resources , people , technologies , and funding . We can then justify our cyber program needs appropriately , determine the maturity , strengths , weaknesses , and then establish a multiyear roadmap for how we can mature our programme ,” he adds .
This framework is essential as Portland looks for new ways to improve its cyber strategy . As many of the city ’ s peers also use this framework , they can anonymously share with each other their progress and their challenges through an annual survey facilitated by the Centre for Internet Security . “ The NCSR annual survey provides U . S . public entities an external metric of how our cyber programmes and business resiliency compare to our peers . This comparison helps us to motivate ourselves to do better and to collaborate better so that we share the lessons learned from years of shared process improvement ,” notes Paidhrin .
Central to the City of Portland ’ s cyber security infrastructure is security company Fortinet . “ We spent two-plus years
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