{"id":209852,"date":"2026-05-06T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/kansas-bolsters-cybersecurity-with-new-shared-services-model\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:55:08","slug":"kansas-bolsters-cybersecurity-with-new-shared-services-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/kansas-bolsters-cybersecurity-with-new-shared-services-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Bolsters Cybersecurity With New Shared Services Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kansas Bolsters Cybersecurity With New Shared Services Model<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/security\/kansas-bolsters-cybersecurity-with-new-shared-services-model<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-06 16:53:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.govtech.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Kansas is now offering shared IT and cybersecurity services to its local governments, public schools, hospitals and nonprofits, potentially creating an economy of scale that will lower costs for the state as well, said Kansas Chief IT Officer Jeff Maxon.This comes after the passage and signing in April of two key pieces of legislation that expand state tech support and oversight in different ways. The first is Senate Bill 51, which formally lets the state’s Office of Information Technology Services (OITS) provide IT and cybersecurity services to cities, counties, schools, hospitals and nonprofits. The state will use a chargeback model, which means recipients pay for services rendered, rather than for tech support in perpetuity. The second is House Bill 2574, which requires new ongoing cybersecurity assessments and maturity reporting within the state government itself, while also giving the state’s chief information security officer more flexibility to set security standards across agencies as threats continue to rapidly evolve.SB 51 “allows us to build our own economies of scale, so we can hopefully reduce costs not just for local governments but for the state,\u201d Maxon said. \u201cIt also increases visibility into what\u2019s going on across the state, so we know how to better defend and where to allocate resources.\u201dUnder previous law, Maxon said that reporting requirements existed, but they didn\u2019t provide a complete picture. As this model grows, it will provide more insight into things like local cybersecurity-related outages, and it is expected to bring more consistency to cloud adoption as OITS provides direct services.While leaders cannot predict how quickly local entities will adopt the program, they want small and rural communities to know help is now available. Maxon said the state will also continue encouraging communities to partner with one another, as they do in traditional emergency situations, both in terms of cybersecurity and IT.HB 2574, meanwhile, expands cybersecurity governance within the state by centralizing oversight and requiring ongoing cybersecurity assessments and maturity reporting. The bill strengthens the authority of the Kansas Information Security Office, reaffirms cybersecurity oversight across branches of government, and creates recurring assessments and reporting.The reporting mechanism will show state lawmakers each agency\u2019s cybersecurity progress and maturity. Rather than relying only on static compliance requirements, the state security office is building an assessment program focused on monitoring, managing and improving cybersecurity over time. Maxon said the shift is needed because compliance standards often lag behind rapidly evolving threats. For example, while some frameworks require monthly workstation vulnerability scans, Kansas has moved to real-time device scanning because vulnerabilities are exploited more quickly than in the past.\u201cIf we just focused on monthly scanning, we would be exposed to a lot more vulnerabilities,\u201d he said. As agencies mature, the state wants them focused on building future capabilities and efficiencies, not just checking compliance boxes. The law also gives the state CISO flexibility to adapt standards and targets as threats evolve, allowing agencies to move toward more advanced security practices over time. This is all especially pressing in 2026, as the rapid evolution of AI and related technologies increases the number and efficiency of cybersecurity threats.Cyber assessments are also now tied to the state budget. Once an assessment produces a set of findings or recommendations, each agency must create a plan of action and set of related milestones to remediate those findings, Maxon said. Lawmakers can withhold IT funding if remediation isn\u2019t moving forward.Overall, the laws formalize a broader enterprise approach to cybersecurity governance that officials have been building for years. Kansas’ cybersecurity office was established in 2018 as a two-person operation. Under current CISO John Godfrey, it now has about 40 staff members.Maxon said years of foundational work are translating into operational progress, even as agencies work through implementation challenges and evolving threats. The broader goal is to keep improving IT and cybersecurity maturity through coordinated, enterprise-style governance and shared operational models.<\/p>\n

Rae D. DeShong is a Texas-based staff writer for Government Technology and a former staff writer for Industry Insider \u2014 Texas. She has worked at The Dallas Morning News and as a community college administrator.<\/p>\n

See More Stories by Rae D. DeShong<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas Bolsters Cybersecurity With New Shared Services Model https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/security\/kansas-bolsters-cybersecurity-with-new-shared-services-model Publish Date: 2026-05-06 16:53:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/erepublic.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/06faf09\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/945x459+0+85\/resize\/1440x700!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ferepublic-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbd%2F23%2F5978eabd0fdb14a2f4e8f3bc4e4d%2F1309-kansas-capitol-20.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[26,24,27],"class_list":["post-209852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-ai","tag-cybersecurity","tag-vulnerability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209854,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209852\/revisions\/209854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}