“We support everything from cradle to grave for all the agencies, all the divisions within the department to make sure that they are able to deliver services to our customers,” she explained earlier this month at the NASCIO conference in New Orleans.
Leaman also plays a role in making sure agencies are as prepared as possible to respond to any emergency that could come their way. Catastrophic weather like Hurricanes Helene and Milton, cybersecurity incidents that take resident services offline and infrastructure failures like the bridge collapse in Baltimore serve as cautionary tales for other agencies that can use the events to build response plans for real-world scenarios.
A key element of those plans is resilient and interoperable communications. Here, Leaman offers more specifics on the state’s approach.
Maryland requires that agencies update their business continuity and disaster recovery plans annually, but Leaman concedes that even more frequent updates could be necessary.
“As new things come up, as emergencies continue to evolve, as technology continues to evolve, cybersecurity incidents, obviously, can change the way an agency is going to operate in the future,” she said.
