Insight

Cybersecurity Priorities for Public-Sector CIOs

What Security Leaders Are Funding in 2026

Public-sector CIOs are defending larger attack surfaces with flatter budgets. Ransomware pressure on local government, aging identity infrastructure, and new federal reporting expectations are forcing hard sequencing decisions about what gets funded first.

This insight brief draws on Industry Navigator’s conversations with state and local security leaders to rank the priorities that are actually moving procurement in 2026 — and the capabilities agencies say they will wait on.

What You’ll Learn

• The top-funded security initiatives across SLED in 2026
• How identity modernization is displacing perimeter spend
• Where CIOs say vendors are overselling and underserving
• Budget signals that precede a security procurement cycle