U.S. federal, state and local government agencies rank in last place in cybersecurity when compared against 17 major private industries, including transportation, retail and health care, according to a new report released Thursday.
The analysis, from venture-backed security risk benchmarking startup SecurityScorecard, measured the relative security health of government and industries across 10 categories, including vulnerability to malware infections, exposure rates of passwords and susceptibility to social engineering, such as an employee using corporate account information on a public social network.
Educations, telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries also ranked low, the report found. Information services, construction, food and technology were among the top performers.