Cyber Training, Scooter Bans & Tech Spending in 2022

All right, welcome back to another episode of In Case You Missed It. Here we are in the month of December. What a wild year it has been, and what a wild week in GovTech it has been again. And we've got a lot we're going to break down for you today, and we'll start first with our kind of top reads of the week. Um, one that kind of caught my attention this week that I wanted to share was around a new partnership with Iowa universities and NSA and a few other government agencies to really look at training the future of cybersecurity workers. And so this partnership is a $2 million grant that's focused on cybersecurity workforce training. And one of the things that we've seen time and time again in this market and kind of in the trenches of government is that there are a ton of workforce challenges, skillset disconnects and divides that exist. But cybersecurity remains the number one priority across the board, all levels of government, and one of the biggest disconnects today is having the right cyber talent just to deal with all the new emerging threat vectors. I mean, when you look at over 19,000 cities, the vast majority of them being small, they're not each going to have their own chief information security officer, so we're going to have to think creatively about how to solve this at a collective level, and that's where I think there's a huge opportunity. to really think about that model. And this, you know, coalition, so to speak, helps spread the love, and I think this is a great approach. Joe, what do you, what do you think about, about this new approach in Iowa?

I think I spent the bulk of this week talking about workforce issues and cybersecurity, so this topic's on point. I mean, when you look at what's out there now from a state and local perspective with the funding that's coming through the infrastructure bill, you got, what, $1.2 billion or so that's they're gonna be able to tap into that'll help them provide some funding to gain the resources. But actually having a talent pipeline big enough to fill it is a whole different story. And I think that's gonna be a big challenge is how much talent is there to fill these gaps. And these types of partnerships are gonna go a big way. And hopefully we see it not just in that state, but across the country to fill this, fill these gaps in the IT perspective.

The shared position challenge. I know we've talked in previous episodes about, You know, maybe shared services in the modern era is a shared position towards cybersecurity where agencies pull funding together and hire an amazing CISO that can help them deal with these challenges. But, you know, at the center of all this, we need to make sure that we're training, you know, these new stakeholders, these new leaders, these new cyber experts on the new threats that are affecting them. And critical infrastructure is kind of front and center with that.

Maybe 2022 will give rise to the fractional CISO.

A fractional CISO. You heard it here first on In Case You Missed It. Next year, it's going to be printed on mugs. So, Jed, any thoughts on this one as well?

Yeah, I do have a thought. So definitely, this is a really interesting partnership. And I hope to see this in more places. Because the workforce is such a big issue in cybersecurity. As we know, if you look at the CIO, you know, most important priorities, it's been the number one priority for years and years. But the one thing that I do think about though, in addition to having a trained specific cyber workforce, is to also train your regular workforce on cybersecurity. And we might have to rethink the way that we train, you know, think more about the psychological reasons why someone is duped by an email, for example. So again, while I really like this, this idea of having a trained workforce specifically for cybersecurity, We also need to remember, hey, we got to make sure that we continue to train everyone else on this.

Yeah, I think it's a really good point. I mean, some of the biggest breaches that have happened haven't actually leveraged lines of code or any type of technology whatsoever. They've been social engineering attacks where someone will emulate, you know, a contractor and change routing information for a bond payment or something to that extent, something that Kevin Mitnick, you know, really made famous in the way that he was able to quote unquote hack on some of the Motorola stuff that he did. All right, so let's move on to our next story. So note, I know that, you know, this has been another wild week in GovTech acquisitions. We saw, you know, Zen City acquire Civil Space. Joe, tell us a little bit about why this one caught your attention.

Well, I think it resonates with what we've been talking about. This is a piece done by Douglas Palmer from Ascend Capital, really looking at the market and saying, hey, we like what we see. We see the federal spending in here from 3 stimulus bills really helping to accelerate what's happening in the GovTech arena. And then, you know, outside of the federal funding, they're looking at the wave of modernization that's really taking root across the government space. And what does that mean to those that are looking at this from a venture capital perspective and an investment perspective? And they kind of outline some things towards the bottom, right? State and local governments, a massive addressable market. They walk through how much GDP and spending figures there are, but you've got local governments in particular have ultimately, you know, the ultimate, right, reliable revenue sourcing, so they, in terms of taxes and federal funds and the demand for their services. And as you mentioned, just with cybersecurity, an underserved population. 90% of our municipalities are below 30,000 in population. So lots of opportunity here for low-cost solutions, sticky GovTech solutions, and a massive market opportunity. It's got a lot of desirable market factors hitting it right now. So this is why this market, this article stuck out to me is it resonates with what I'm seeing in the market right now and how busy I know we are. And how busy those that are serving the market are as well.

Yeah, and there's no slowing down. I think that was one good point in the article that was made as well. I mean, this is gonna continue into 2022 and beyond. We have also reached a point this year where we have now officially, as of the end of November, crossed the $1 billion mark in venture capital raised by US GovTech companies alone. So, you know, let that sink in, a market that people were told to avoid from a startup standpoint, has collectively had companies that are solely focused on state and local government as a customer raise $1 billion. So this market activity is on a rocket ship. It's going to continue, and it's exciting to see, you know, the new entrants into the market, but also the incumbents that are finding innovative ways to reimagine the way that they deliver services in a modern era as well.

You know, something that comes to mind on this topic is how this relates to supply chain Dynamics. And I think that in terms of GovTech spending, we're going to really see the cloud sector explode because— explode even more because of the supply chain crisis. You know, people aren't going to be able to get, you know, the hardware as much anymore because the supply chain crisis is going to last, according to industry sources, at least until late 2022, if not early 2023. So I expect to see a lot more investment for cloud, both from venture capitalists but also from governments themselves. Absolutely.

All right, in our final article, Jed, this one caught your attention for this week. Miami Council voting to reinstate scooters after a ban. Tell us about this one.

Yeah, so the basic idea here is that they banned scooters a while back because of different safety concerns, nuisance concerns, and so on. And so now they're, they're taking the, the ban away, and what they're doing is they're revving up on regulations, making sure that people aren't going too fast, making sure that people aren't leaving the scooters in the wrong place, and that sort of thing. You know, if I might kind of shy away from objectivity here for a second, I do have a personal viewpoint on scooters. Uh, just based on my experience here in Sacramento, uh, I can definitely see why people just don't like them because of the safety, uh, potential safety hazards. I've almost been hit a couple of times just walking on the sidewalk by people just having a good time. And that's the thing with these scooters, it's not just a matter of, hey, people are only going to use this for micromobility. You know, that's the term that gets thrown around a lot. A lot of people just want to have fun And a lot of these people are younger. And honestly, it is an eyesore too sometimes when you're walking down a sidewalk and there's just, you know, a number of scooters just lying down on their side. You know, it can be a bit of an eyesore. And so I think that this discussion is going to continue. And again, the idea behind regulations is not for big government to come down on people. It's basically to protect, you know, people are just walking on the sidewalk. And also to just to make sure that the tech is not misused. That's the thing, there's nothing wrong with the companies or the tech in and of themselves, it's how people misuse it. And we want to make sure that cities don't become basically large elementary school playgrounds.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that there's, you know, there's an opportunity when it comes to these types of new technologies to build regulatory sandboxes, which we've seen some states do and some jurisdictions do as well, where you know, you test the technology, you evaluate it, you share the learnings, and you really figure out the regulatory, you know, environment to put it within. Because some of them, you know, work within existing structures and some need new structures. I mean, take Uber, you know, as cities tried to deal with them and, you know, they were applying all kinds of new, you know, legislation to them and trying to fit them into the taxi bucket. And it's like, but is it a taxi? Is it the same thing as some of these legacy policies that have been out there forever? Or is it a new category altogether? So I think when it comes to emerging tech and new forms of transportation, micromobility, you know, even some of the new, you know, kind of licensing and permitting areas that are gonna emerge around like 5G and other things, it's one of those things that we have to experiment and share those best practices and kind of figure out where do these things fit and what's the best way for government agencies to allow innovation to take place within the built environment, but allow it to happen in a safe way where, you know, someone's not knocking Jed down with a scooter on the street. So.

Don't worry, Jay, we'll get you in the In Case You Missed It Scooter Gang.

I appreciate it. Maybe I need to start carrying a baseball bat with me when I, when I go to town.

It's a good thing I live in Austin, Texas, and not, uh, not in Jed's neck of the woods. So yeah, but, uh, so much, so much happening this week. So that was our, our 3 for the week. Now we've got some excitement planned, uh, you know, kind of in the weeks ahead for future episodes. I'll let Joe talk about next week in just a moment. But kind of looking at next year for 2022, we're gonna be launching the GovTech 100 2022 right here on In Case You Missed It. So you'll definitely wanna tune into that the first week of January. We'll also be joined by some guests in future episodes in January, as well as we talk about new transportation initiatives. There's a new state and local government innovation program being launched by ELGL, eRepublic, and CivStart to really focus on, you know, transportation and mobility. This will be something that's really an exciting way for government agencies that are out there that are trying to deal with the influx of federal funds and what to do from a transportation standpoint to incubate some of that, to be joined up with startups in the process. So we'll post more information kind of after the show and the links for that. So you definitely want to sign up if you're an interested government agency. But Joe, what's in store for next week's final episode of the year?

Well, like you, I'm super excited for some of the guests we're lining up for next year. But before we get to next year, we're going to take one last look at the year that was 2021. So we're going to share with you Our Year in Review next Friday, so make sure you're there. We look forward to sharing our insights with you, and until then, have a wonderful weekend.

Thank you.