Governor Terry McAuliffe, who is the current Vice-Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) will travel to Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday to participate in the annual summer meeting of the NGA.
The Governor will participate in numerous meetings, panel discussions and receptions with a bipartisan group of governors from across the nation.
On Saturday, July 16th, Governor McAuliffe is expected to be elected by his fellow governors as the new Chairman of the NGA, a position he will hold until next year’s summer meeting. Governor McAuliffe is the first Virginia Governor to be elected NGA Chair since Governor Mark Warner held the post in 2004.
It is customary for each NGA Chairman to identify an initiative that he/she will spend his/her tenure promoting in states as well as the representative of the nation’s governors on federal issues. Governor McAuliffe has selected cybersecurity and will launch “Meet the Threat: States Confront the Cyber Challenge” as his initiative. His initiative will place states at the center of defining solutions to the growing cyber threats facing our country. States have made significant progress improving their cybersecurity capabilities, but work remains to ensure states are prepared to prevent and respond to a cyber crisis.
The Governor has devoted his time in office to growing and diversifying the Virginia economy, and promoting cutting-edge industries like cybersecurity are an essential part of that effort. Strengthening cybersecurity at both the state and federal levels is also an important national security issue, as cyber attackers around the world continuously develop their scope, sophistication, and ability to steal personal data and disrupt important functions of government and industry.
While new technologies create security vulnerabilities, they also present opportunities for developing more efficient and protected proprietary networks, strengthening states’ cybersecurity frameworks and expanding vital prospects for economic development.
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Chris Graham
