From home computer users making sure they have anti-virus and anti-spyware installed, to protecting your kids from online predators, to backing up everything in case of a cyber attack, the federal governments wants you to be sure you're doing everything you can to protect your cyber assets.

"Back in 2004, at the inaugural Cyber Security Awareness Month, almost a third of the Americans polled believed they were more likely to be struck by lightning than to become a victim of a cyber attack or a security breach," Greg Garcia, Cybersecurity and Communications Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday.

"The times really have changed. We're seeing now phishing, farming, botnets, Wi-Fi, war dialing and domain server spoofing. And we're seeing coordinated cyber attacks against nation states."

With IT systems and networks serving as the "nervous system" of the country's most critical infrastructures, such as food and water processing and purification plants, bridges, electricity generation, online banking, and dispatching emergency personnel, Garcia said, "protecting cyberspace, in my view, is as important to our national interests as protecting our land and our sea borders."

State chief information officers (CIOs) across the country are using this month to hammer home the message to their governments that development and protection of the IT structure is of utmost importance.

"It is utterly important to recognize that information technology not only enables the workings of the country's infrastructure … but also enables all of our commercial activity and as such there's a need for all the stakeholders to work together to ensure that the nation's IT infrastructure is secure," Gopal Khanna, Minnesota's CIO and president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) told HSToday.us

State CIOs are responsible for leading technical solutions across their governments, and for coordinating efforts to keeping states' networks safe and secure.

Khanna said it's imperative state governments use a "coherent approach" in securing citizens' data and assets.

"The weakest link can disable the government's ability to deliver content in the classroom, payroll for employees, payouts for Human Services, information for police officers in police cars, and ability for first responders to respond in the case of a disaster," he said.

State and federal CIOs for years have been arguing for the need to tear down bureaucratic, vertical silos, or stovepipes, that prohibit fast, effective movement solutions from being had. Data is frequently "owned" by individual business units rather than by the state agencies and the larger network that runs them. Plus, there are many data breaches states are trying to combat.

For example, more than 245 million records containing sensitive, personal information have been breached or compromised since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, including many this year. Click here to see full study.

The study found:

55,000 records being compromised when a security breach in the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration's Organ and Tissue Donor Registry may have exposed thousands of donor's personal information, including Social Security numbers.

3.4 million DMV records in Colorado were accessible to 33 former agency employees, due to a practice of the agency regularly sending large batches of personal information over the Internet without encryption or limiting access to its database.

13,000 names, addresses and Social Security numbers for licensed agents of the Louisiana Real Estate Commission were exposed on the Internet after a computer glitch during a computer upgrade.

Khanna explained that some of the biggest challenges facing state CIOs include forcing state governments to spread their limited security defenses very thin across many different "battle fronts," dependence on legacy systems and platforms that were built without basic security controls or recovery strategies; lack of resources; and a lack of awareness on the part of legislators, stakeholders, program staff and citizens of the compelling need to secure the country's data and information assets.

"As government leaders, if we can get past our tradition of trying to solve problems in parochial silos, we can architect solutions that address the serious security issues that we now face," Khanna said. "But if we do not have the wherewithal to break down these silos and work together, the onslaught of government data breaches in the news will continue - and most likely get worse."

There is still a concern among states that not only are there enough IT workers to go around, but that governments will be hit the hardest by the shortage. Fewer students are enrolling in computer science courses in college, and private companies often are more attractive to younger workers because of the higher paychecks.

A survey released by NASIO last year shows that 80 percent of government respondents had difficulty filling empty IT positions, while about 60 percent said they weren't confident in their agencies' ability to promote staff to the positions baby boomers currently hold. Click here to see full story.

Some states have made changes to traditional merit systems to hire IT workers faster, while other states are paying their IT experts a salary competitive with the private sector. Some state CIOS are looking on social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to try to convince younger workers to enter the government sector. In December, Missouri became the first state to establish a presence in the online community "Second Life," where the state holds virtual job fairs and educates IT-savvy individuals about working for the state.

Liza Porteus Viana writes regularly for HSToday and HSToday.us